Then 100 years ago, Queen Victoria
(Queen Elizabeth’s great-greatgrandmother) signed the papers that would
allow Australia to become a nation.
These stamps celebrate that occasion and
other steps that led towards Australia
having its own government. The
Commonwealth of Australia will be 100
years old in 2001.
The two 45c stamps show the 1898
referendum where people voted on
whether the colonies should join together.
Before 1901, New South Wales,
Victoria, Queensland, South
Australia, Tasmania and
Western Australia were all
separate colonies of Great Britain.
The first $1.50 stamp shows an illustration
from 1901 which depicts the States as
young women dancing around a chariot
which is pulling along a beautiful Australia.
The second $1.50 stamp shows Queen
Victoria seated beside her signed agreement.
Issue date: 22 May
HOW GOOD ARE
YOUR EYES?
Every Australian stamp released since
Australia Day 1989 includes the year of
issue somewhere in its design. See if you
can find the year 2000 on all of the
stamps in this magazine. (Sometimes the
date is hard to find – you might need to
use a magnifying glass!) All stamps
issued in 2000 have another special
feature: can you find that too?
Legends in their lifetimes
Australia Post’s ‘Australian
Legends Award’ is made each
January to honour a person
(or sometimes a group of people)
who has made an outstanding
contribution to Australia’s
identity and heritage.
This year’s Award is shared
between the last surviving
ANZACs; soldiers who fought at
Gallipoli, Turkey in 1915.
Although they are all more than
100 years old now, they were
very young men when they
fought in the war. Alec Campbell,
the youngest, was only 16 when
he enlisted.
The last ANZACs are shown
(with their current ages) from left
to right: Roy Longmore (106),
Walter Parker (105)*, Alec
Campbell (101). The stamps
show photos of the men taken
before they left for Gallipoli,
together with the 1914-15 star,
the medal presented to all of the
ANZACs.
What is an
ANZAC?
ANZAC stands for Australian and New
Zealand Army Corps. The name was first
used for the soldiers who fought at
Gallipoli, Turkey in April 1915. Each
ANZAC Day (25 April) we remember all
the Australian men and women who have
fought and died in wars.
The last ANZACs are
representatives of the many brave
men and women who fought for
Australia in World War One
(1914-1918), which they believed
would be ‘a war to end all wars’.
Issue date: 21 January
* Walter died on the day after the stamps
were released
nature
&nation
These Nature and Nation stamps feature a
variety of Australian images.
Each stamp has a tab which shows the title of the
stamp: Daisy; Australia & Globe; Kangaroo & Flag;
Sand Sea Sky; and Rainforest.
From 19 June, these stamps will also be available in
sheets of 20 PStamps. This means that, in place of the
title tabs, the stamps can be personalised with a
photograph of a person, pet, toy,
house…almost* anything you like!
[*New terms and conditions are covered in
detail in the new order form, available at
Australia Post outlets from 19 June 2000.]
Issue date: 11 May
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Stamp collecting is a great way to
learn about subjects that interest you.
Some people have stamp collections
based around one favourite subject like
birds or animals or space exploration.
Collecting stamps on just one topic is
called ‘thematic collecting’.
Now have a look at this 1997 stamp from
Christmas Island and see how many
themes you can find. Below is the list of
themes that the Stamp Gang found…but
there could be even more themes that they
have missed!
Themes: glasses, dogs, shoes, costumes,
hairstyles
Before you decide on a theme, it’s a good
idea to look through a stamp catalogue
(you can find one in your local library) to
see whether there are many stamps that
include your chosen theme. It could be
pretty frustrating to choose a subject where
you might only be able to collect one or
two stamps a year!
Some of the Stamp Gang have thematic
collections: Kym is just crazy about her
horse stamps, Skeeter collects ‘extreme
sports’ stamps, and Icky is into pig stamps
because…well, if you’d ever met Icky you’d
know why!
Some of the themes people collect are
things that they may have to look very
closely for. They carefully check every new
stamp that comes out, even if at first glance
it might have nothing to do with their
theme. Here are some examples (they also
show some of the unusual themes that
people collect!):
Themes: birds, flowers, angels, teapots,
stars and moons
Themes: Christmas, toys, tools,
musical instruments, birds, Santa Claus, crabs,
presents, teddy bears, cars, boats, hats
Themes: hats, toys, flowers,
clocks, dogs, dolls
A sample from Kym
’s
thematic collectio
n
Queen’s
Birthday
This Queen’s Birthday stamp
shows photographs of some of
Queen Elizabeth’s visits to
Australia. The stamp will be
released in time for the
Queen’s real birthday in April.
Issue date: 13 April
50th Anniversary
Korean War
This stamp
commemorates
the 50th
anniversary of
the Korean War.
United Nations
forces, including
soldiers from
Australia, New Zealand, Greece, Thailand, Turkey and the
USA, stepped in to help when North Korea invaded South
Korea in 1950.
The issue date of the stamps
coincides with the dedication
of a new Australian National
Korean War Memorial in
Canberra.
Issue date: 18 April
THE STAMP WAR
A postage stamp once
caused a war!
In 1930, Bolivia issued a
stamp featuring a map of
Bolivia, including a piece of
land called the Gran Chaco.
Soon afterwards,
neighbouring Paraguay
released its own map stamp,
showing the Gran Chaco as
part of Paraguay. This, and
several more stamps which
followed, started a war
between the two countries.
Eventually, after years of
fighting, the Gran Chaco
was officially proclaimed
part of Paraguay.
Face of Christmas Island
Face of Cocos (Keeling) Islands
In our last issue, we showed you the
Face of Australia stamps: a
‘snapshot’ of who we are as a nation
at the beginning of the year 2000.
These two sets of stamps represent
similar ‘snapshots’ of the people of
Christmas and Cocos Islands. Like
the people you saw on the Face of
Australia stamps, these photos were
sent in by friends and family of the
people in the pictures. So now, let’s
meet them!
Cocos (Keeling) Islands
(left to right): Ratma Anthoney; Nakia
Haji Dolman; Muller Eymin;
Courtney Press; Mhd Abu-Yazid.
Issue date: 13 April
Christmas Island
(left to right): Yeow Jian Min; Ida Chin; Ho
Tak Wah; Thomas Faul and James Neill;
Siti Sanniah Kawi.
WHICH STAMPS ARE THESE ?
We’ve shown just a tiny detail of four of the stamps in this issue of
the Stamp Explorer. Can you work out which ones they are?
Competition
In our next issue, we’ll be featuring special
international stamps designed for
Australians sending letters and parcels to
people overseas. What would you like to
show on an international stamp? It could be
a famous landmark, or maybe just a place
that is special to TMyou. Send in your design
and you could win one of ten fantastic
Stamp Collecting Starter Kits ($14.95 RRP).
WINNERS OF THE FAMILY
HISTORY COMPETITION
Congratulations to the winners of our
Family History competition! A fabulous
mouse mat and Year of the Dragon minisheet will be sent to you very soon. On
the right are some important events in
our winners’ family history.
Chelsea Stanton, SA
Jessica Reeson, QLD
Andrea Elliot, VIC
Renee Heier, TAS
Lean Metzroth, QLD
Hi Stamp Gang
What do you think of these great drawings of Stamp Gang family
history? I wish I had a drawing of the momentous occasion when my
cousin Rover dug up a huge dinosaur thigh bone. We were all so excited, until we
discovered he had dug into the museum storeroom and he had to return it. Of course our
most exciting family event was when my Russian great-great-great-Aunt Laika went up
in space – she was a real hero and got her face on lots of stamps! I’m still hoping that I’ll
do something one day so I’ll be famous too.
Love Sniffer
Meaghan Raymond, VIC
Krystal Dittman, QLD
Tamysn Holm, QLD
Ashima Bist, VIC
Lydia Heggblum, SA
Krystal Dittman
Meaghan Raymond
Tamysn Holm
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WINNERS OF COLOURING
COMPETITION
Kim Tran, ACT
Jill Ross-Smith, QLD
Samantha Van
Langenberg, VIC
Alex Ward, VIC
Sarah Wade, WA
Anna Masternak, VIC
Dylan Stopins, NSW
Kyl Healy, QLD
Lauren Kajewski, NSW
Thomas O'Connor, NSW
Matthew Hanscamp, VIC
Ben Davis, NT
Melanie Clarke, VIC
Eden Meure, TAS
Shajee Jeyalingam, NSW
Dean Kempton, NSW
Elissa Koh, Christmas Is
Mitchell Murray, QLD
Hannah Joliffe, NSW
Hayden Kajewski, NSW
Mubarak Mansoor, Sri Lanka
Daphne Premnath, ACT
Michael Hickey, QLD
Jasper Lee, Christmas Is
Luisa Kaehny, Germany
Puzzle answers from left to right: Towards Federation - taking the vote, Legends - 1914-15 star,
Nature & Nation - daisy, Nature & Nation, kangaroo and flag.
Sign up yo
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Do yo
Ashima Bist
Andrea Elliot
Stamps have sometimes been printed on some unusual materials:
• Latvia has printed stamps on the backs of maps and old banknotes.
• Poland has printed stamps on artificial silk.
• Paraguay has printed them on tinfoil.
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