Australia
Dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals, fossils, fossil found
places, Charles Darwin on official and personalzed stamps, postmarks
and postal stationeries of Australia
Contents:
Australia
officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is an Oceanian country comprising the
mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands.
Neighbouring countries include
Papua New Guinea,
Indonesia and East Timor to the north;
the
Solomon Islands and
Vanuatu to the north-east;
and
New Zealand to the south-east.
Australia is world famous for its natural wonders and wide open spaces,
its beaches, deserts, "the bush", and "the Outback".
Australia is one of the world's most highly urbanised countries; it is well known for
the attractions of its large cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.
[R1]
Australia is also world famous for its discovery of
Dinosaur and
Megafauna fossils,
some of it are unique - found no where else and bears the names of Australian locations where their fossils were discovered.
Muttaburrasaurus[R9] dinosaur named after Muttaburra town
[R8]
in Queensland state of Australia.
Many of the prehistoric creatures who roamed the teritorry of moden Australia can be seen on Australian stamps.
Do you know ?
Registered letter can be send in Australia in special prepaid "Registered Post" envelops
only that include unique tracking code.
The price of the envelope already include postage and register post services.
Stamps on such covers are absolutely redundant and can be used for decoration purpose
only as shown on the second images.
"Decorated" letters have no philatelic value - don't waste your money on it.
Official stamps of Australia that related to Paleontology: dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals
Notes:
[1] On October 10,
1993, only
three month after release of "Jurassic Park" movie, three commonwealth countries: Australia,
Canada and
New Zealand issued dinosaur stamps.
Australian stamps issued in single sheets and mint mini-sheet of all 6 stamps.
Two stamps from the set issued as self-adhesive in booklets and rolls.
The mint mini-sheet available with several overprints in golden and blaack colors,
issued some for some stamps shows.
Many Australian stamps of prehistoric animals: "Dinosaurs" 1993, "Creatures of the Slimes" 2005, "Megafauna" 2008
are based on drawins of famous Australian Paleo-Artist Peter Trusler
Below are some videos where Peter Trusler talks about his work.
You might activate full screen option for more convenient view.
Personalized stamp: dinosaurs
13.02.2018 "Jurassic Park 25th Anniversary stamp pack" [SP1] |
xx.06.2018 "Jurassic World 2 Fallen Kingdom" [SP2] |
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Notes:
[SP1] Souvenir sheet with 10 stamps and some Dinosaurs on on tabs in between.
Issued by Australian Post to celebrate one of the biggest movie franchises in motion picture history
with the Jurassic Park 25
th anniversary!
This film takes you to an amazing theme park on a remote island where
dinosaurs once again roam the Earth and five people must battle to
survive among the prehistoric predators.
Featuring visually stunning imagery and groundbreaking filmmaking, this epic film is sheer
movie-making magic that was 65 million years in the making.
This film takes you on a breathtaking adventure you will want to experience again
and again. Welcome to Jurassic Park.
[SP2] Jurassic world 2 Fallen Kingdom - personalized stamps of Australian post.
Souvenir sheet with 20 stamps and some Dinosaurs on on tabs in between.
The pack centres on the newly released Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
In this latest instalment of this hugely popular movie franchise, four
years have passed since the destruction of the Jurassic World theme
park, and there’s a push to rescue the remaining dinosaurs from the
island.

With all of the wonder, adventure and thrills synonymous
with one of the most popular and successful franchises in cinema
history, we see the return of favourite characters and dinosaurs –
along with new breeds more awe-inspiring and terrifying than ever before.
Welcome to Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
It’s been four years since theme park and luxury resort Jurassic World was destroyed
by dinosaurs out of containment.
Isla Nublar now sits abandoned by humans while the surviving dinosaurs fend for themselves in the jungles.
When the island’s dormant volcano begins roaring to life, Owen (Chris Pratt)
and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) mount a campaign to rescue the
remaining dinosaurs from this extinction-level event.
Owen is driven to find Blue, his lead raptor who’s still missing in the wild and Claire
has gained respect for these creatures she now makes her mission to save.
Arriving on the unstable island as lava begins raining down,
their expedition uncovers a conspiracy that could return our entire
planet to a perilous order not seen since prehistoric times.
Other stamps of Australia to consider: fossil-found place
04.03.1993 "Australian World Heritage Sites" [O1] |
14.03.1996 "Australian World Heritage Sites" [O2] |
05.04.2007 "Definitive stamps: Ilsands" [O3] |
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02.05.2017 "Caves" [O3] |
12.06.2018 "The Art in Nature" [O1] |
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Notes:
[O1]
Shark bay is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western
Australia.
The bay's landscape appeared on two Austarlain stamps:
the first time in 1993 (face value of 95c), then in 2017 (face value of $1).
Shark Bay, located about half way up Western Australia's west coast, stretches along 1,500 kilometres
of coastline.
It includes several islands, white sand beaches, red cliffs and tranquil turquoise lagoons and
is home to remarkable biological diversity and marine life.
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Shark Bay on stamp of Australia 1993 and 2018, MiNr. 1337 and 4813 |
Stromatolite Shark Bay The image is from
Wikipedia
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Shark Bay is also one of the few places where scientists can study
modern
stromatolites – a bacterial-sediment structure.
Based on growth rate it is believed that about 1,000 years ago
cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) began building up stromatolites in
Hamelin Pool at the Hamelin Station reserve in the southern part of the bay.
These structures are modern equivalents of the earliest signs of
life on Earth, with fossilized stromatolites being found dating from
3.5 billion years ago at North Pole near Marble Bar, in Western
Australia, and are considered the longest continuing biological lineage.
Stromatolites make-up the majority of
fossils from the Precambrian.
They were first identified in 1956 at Hamelin Pool as a living
species[dubious – discuss], before that only being known in the
fossil record.
Hamelin Pool contains the most diverse and abundant examples of living
stromatolite
forms in the world. Other occurrences are found at Lake Clifton near Mandurah
and Lake Thetis near Cervantes. It is hypothesized that some
stromatolites contain a new form of chlorophyll, chlorophyll.
[R10]
[O2] Three stamps of the set shown important fossil-found places in Australia.
The
Willandra Lakes
Region is a World Heritage Site in the Far West region of New South Wales, Australia.
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Willandra Lakes on stamp of Australia 1996, MiNr. 1537
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Willandra contains some of the earliest evidence of
Homo sapiens sapiens outside Africa.
The evidence of occupation deposits establishes
that humans had dispersed as far as Australia by 42,000 years ago.
Sites also illustrate human burials that are of great antiquity, such
as a cremation dating to around 40,000 years BP, the oldest ritual
cremation site in the world, and traces of complex plant-food gathering
systems that date back before 18,000 years BP associated with
grindstones to produce flour from wild grass seeds, at much the same
time as their use in the Middle East.
Pigments were transported to these lakeshores before 42,000 years BP.
Evidence from this region has allowed the typology of early Australian stone tools to be defined.
[R3]
Fossil cave -
Naracoorte Australian fossil mammal site.
Palaeontology is a familiar activity at the Naracoorte Caves World Heritage Area.
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Fossil cave - Naracoorte on stamp of Australia 1996, MiNr. 1538
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The first published account of fossils from this site was in 1858 by Father Julian Tenison Woods.
Following the discovery of Main Fossil Chamber, Victoria Fossil Cave in 1969, science was firmly
established at the site.
Paleontological research has led to the discovery of 23 fossil deposits in 13 of the Park’s 28 caves and
over 60 scientific papers, 17 student theses, numerous book chapters, and other publications.
[R4]
Lord Howe Island
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Lord Howe Island on stamp of Australia 1996 and 2007, MiNr. 1539 and 2788
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Rocks and land at the foot of these mountains is calcarenite, a coral
sand, blown inland during the Pleistocene between 130,000 and 20,000
years ago and cemented into stratified layers by water percolation.
In this rock are fossils of bird bones and eggs, land and marine snails
and the extinct endemic horned turtle (
Meiolania platyceps) now thought
to be an ancient relictual non-swimming tortoise with relatives in South America.
[R5]
[O3] This stamp issue presents four highly significant caves from around Australia.
Each stamp provides us with a glimpse into these spectacular underground environments.
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Cliefden cave on stamp of Australia 2017, MiNr. 4625
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One of the stamps shows Cliefden cave.
The
Cliefden Caves Geoheritage Site is multifaceted, containing internationally
significant
Ordovician fossil localities,
limestone caves of national significance, a warm spring and tufa dams
of state significance and the historically significant site where
limestone was first discovered in inland Australia.
It has been ranked among the 70 most significant fossil sites in Australia by the
Australian Heritage Council and as the thirteenth most significant
limestone cave site in Australia by Davey.
The site was nominated to the Register of the National Estate by the Geological Society of
Australia in the late 1970s and registered in
1987.
[R11]
Postmarks of Australia that related to Paleontology: dinosaurs, Charles Darwin
Legend is here
Notes:
[PM1]
Hughenden is a town and locality in the Shire of Flinders, Queensland,
Australia with population of about 1,1200 and situated on the banks of the Flinders River.
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The life size Muttaburrasaurus replica in Hughenden,
The image is from Wikipedia.
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Muttaburrasaurus skeleton in the Queensland Museum,
The image is from Wikipedia.
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Apart from agricultural business, Hughenden also boasts a life size,
7m, replica of the
Muttaburrasaurus,
a
dinosaur, whose bones were discovered in 1963 near
Muttaburra
(220 km by road from Hughenden) and some teeth and other bones were also discovered around Hughenden.
The town is home to the
Hughenden Dinosaur Festival, which attracts tourists and includes
entertainment and other events.
Flinders Discovery Centre and Museum also loacted in the town.
The hundreds of fossils are superbly displayed in many individual glass cabinets.
Well labelled, these fossils range from crustaceous animals in rock to ammonites ranging in size, colour and
shape from around the world.
Several different dinosaur bones, vertebrae and other exciting fossils are included in the collection.
[R7]
[PM2]
Muttaburra is a town and locality in the Barcaldine Region,
Queensland, Australia with population of about 330 persons.
Muttaburrasaurus, one of Australia's largest
dinosaurs, was first found on Rosebury Downs station beside the Thompson river
near the town of
Muttaburra in 1963.
It was discovered by a local grazier, Mr D.Langdon of Muttaburra.
The fossil remains had been scattered about by the feet of cattle for years and some of the locals had taken pieces
home with them.
Once the importance of the find was known the locals
were asked to return the material they had souvenired, and most was recovered.
At its time it was the most complete dinosaur skeleton found in Australia.
The skeleton is on display in Queensland Museum (see right).
It roamed the Australian landscape about 100 million years ago during the Cretaceous period.
It was a herbivore, eating such plants as ferns, cycads or conifers but many have also eaten some meat.
It grew up to 7 metres long, was 2.2 metres tall at the hips and weighed up to 1-4 tonnes.
Muttaburrasaurus could most likely walk on two or four legs and lived in herds that were a way of defending itself.
[R8]
[R9]
Some other postmarks of Australia: stylized prehistoric animals, stamp shows etc.
15.10.1993 "Sydney Stamp and Coin Show" [Sp] [PMO1] |
23.10.1993 "Brisbane Stamp Show'93" [Sp] [PM2] |
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Notes:
[PMO1] There are some not postal, but souvenire marks designed by Australian Post
for some stamp shows and used for overprint - placed on the margin of a Mini-Sheet (not on stamp).
Most of the times it shows the logo of the show with its name and dates.
In some special cases, pictorial marks with the show unrelated image produced.
There are at least one of such non postal mark issued in 1993 that shows a dinosaur.
The overprint-mark with Triceratops dinosaur next to name and dates of Stamp and Coin show in Sydney.
The mark is in golden color, but appeares as a black when scanned
(
click on the image on the right to see such a Mini-Sheet).
Postal stationery that related to Paleontology: prehistoric animals and their fossils, Charles Darwin
04.09.1980 "International museum day" [PS1] |
15.01.1986 "150 anniversary of Charles Darwin' visit Australia" |
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Notes:
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Diprotodon on stamp of Australia 2008, MiNr. 3103
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[PS1] skeleton of
Diprotodon,
first discovered at Wellington Caves, depicting on imprinted stamp of the cover.
Diprotodon, meaning "two forward teeth", is the largest known marsupial to have ever lived.
Along with many other members of a group of species collectively known as the "
Australian megafauna", it existed
from approximately 1.6 million years ago until extinction some 46,000 years ago.
Reconstruction of the animal depicted on Australian
Megafauna stamp from 2008
(see right).
Diprotodon species fossils have been found in sites across mainland Australia, including complete skulls and
skeletons, as well as hair and foot impressions.
Female skeletons have been found with babies located where the mother's pouch would have been.
The largest specimens were hippopotamus-sized: about 3 metres from nose to tail, standing 2 metres tall at
the shoulder and weighing about 2,790 kilograms.
Aboriginal rock art images in Quinkan traditional country (Queensland, Australia) have been
claimed to depict diprotodonts.
They inhabited open forest, woodlands, and grasslands, possibly staying close to water, and eating leaves,
shrubs, and some grasses.
[R6]
Special covers that related to Paleontology: prehistoric animals and their fossils
Notes:
[Cov1]
The
Australian Opal Centre (AOC) is an extraordinary national museum being developed in the outback opal mining town of
Lightning Ridge, New South Wales to preserve, display and research the greatest ever public collection of Australian
opal,
opalised fossils, include some dinosaur bones and claws, and the colourful history and heritage of the Australian opal fields.
[R12]
Three of four opalized fossils that shown on Australian
stamps from 2020 are on display in the AOC.
References: