Overview

When Australia was still a collection of colonial outposts and Federation barely thought of, New South Wales presented the Sydney International Exhibition. Following the lead of London, New York, Paris, Vienna and other cities, Sydney's 1879 expo was only the tenth such event ever held. Possibly no one who attended would have realised that the barred numeral canceller used at the Garden Palace post office would later be recognised as Australia's first commemorative postmark. Not to be outdone, Melbourne hosted its own International Exhibition the following year and in 1887, Adelaide patriotically presented its Jubilee Exhibition. By the time Federation came into being however, just a handful of postmarks could rightly be called commemorative. As an adjunct to philately, Australian commemorative postmarks were slow to appear and the early catalogue is a sparse list. Indeed, it is only from the 1930s that such items could be regarded as regular. Some of the earliest postmarks are extremely rare and almost impossible to acquire, or even assign a value to. Fortunately, collectors prepared to accept that some gaps will always remain, can put together a substantial collection with a modest outlay. Of course, a degree of patience is required as some items, despite being affordable, are still difficult to locate. This guide values postmarks on event-specific covers as well as on generic illustrated and plain covers. The valuing process is ongoing.

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