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Australia

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Contents:

• Country overview
• Philately at Australia
• Official stamps of Australia related to Paleontology
• Personalized stamps of Australia related to Paleontology
• Another stamps of Australia to consider
• Commemorative postmarks of Australia related to Paleontology
• Postal stationery of Australia related to Paleontology
• References

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. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area. 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 fossil, many of them can be seen on its stamps.

Some articles about Australian Philately:
How Australia Post stamps come to be: Program development

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

01.10.1993 "Australia’s Dinosaur Era" (mint) [1]	01.10.1993 "Australia’s Dinosaur Era" (self-adhesive)  [1]  [7]	01.10.1993"Australia’s Dinosaur Era" (original Mini Sheets)  [1]
01.10.1993" Australia’s Dinosaur Era" (overprinted Mini Sheets)  [1]  [2]	15.10.1993 "Australia’s Dinosaur Era" (overprinted Mini Sheets)   [1]  [2]	04.09.1997 "Wildlife of Ancient Australia"
21.04.2005 "Creatures of the Slimes" ( Mini Sheet)	21.04.2005 "Creatures of the Slimes"	01.10.2008 "Megafauna"  (self adhesive)
01.10.2008 "Megafauna"  (Mini Sheet)	24.10.2008 "Megafauna"  (overprinted) [5]	01.10.2008 "Megafauna"  (mint)
24.09.2013 "Australia’s Age of Dinosaurs" (mint)	24.09.2013 "Australia’s Age of Dinosaurs" (self adhesive)  [6]	24.09.2013 "Australia’s Age of Dinosaurs" (Mini Sheet) [4]

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.


 [2] Overprinted with golden color, but looks black on the scans.
 [3] Souvenir booklet with some variations of these stamps is exist
 [4] Some variations: partially perforated, embossed are exist
 [5] Some more overprints might be available
 [6] Issued in booklets
 [7] The self adhesive stamps issued in rolls and a booklet of 10.



Personalized stamp: dinosaurs

13.02.2018 "Jurassic Park 25th Anniversary stamp pack" [SP1]	xx.06.2018 "Jurassic World 2 Fallen Kingdom" [SP2]

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 25th 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.


Another stamps of  Australia to consider: fossil found place

04.03.1993  "Australian World Heritage Sites" [O1]	14.03.1996 "Australian World Heritage Sites" [O2]	02.05.2017 "Caves" [O3]
12.06.2018 "The Art in Nature"  [O4]

Notes:

[O1]   Stamp with face value of 95c shows a landscape of Shark Bay. Shark Bay is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. 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. 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 f. [R2]

[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. 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. 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 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. 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. (Wikipedia)

[O4] "The Art in Nature stamp issue illustrates the exquisite beauty found in our country's natural landforms, akin to art," Australia Post Philatelic Manager Michael Zsolt said. One of the stamps shows a landscape of Shark Bay. Shark Bay, Western Australia: Located about half way up Western Australia's west coast, Shark Bay is a spectacular World Heritage–listed area that 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. Showing the shifting sands of this coastal idyll, the photograph was taken on a Phase One IQ280 80 mega pixel camera by Christian Fletcher. Shark Bay is also one of the few places where scientists can study modern stromatolites – a bacterial-sediment structure. Stromatolites make-up the majority of fossils from the Precambrian. The Bay is very hypersaline – which is likely why the stromatolites can grow into the larger structures. In other parts of the world, grazing snails, echinoids and other animals eat the bacterial mats faster than they accumulate – so we don’t see stromatolites except for in places where environmental conditions are too harsh for the grazers. Shark Bay is also a World Heritage Site (https://www.sharkbay.org).

         

     
  


Postmarks of Australia that related to Paleontology: dinosaurs, Charles Darwin

01.08.1988 Hughenden - Dinosaur, celebrating 125 years of settlement"  [Sp] [PM1]	03.02.1989  "Dinosaur countryt"  [Sp] [PM1]	01.10.1993 "Australia’s Dinosaur Era"   [FDC]
xx.xx.1999   "Charles Darwin"  [PM]	24.09.2013 "Australia’s Age of Dinosaurs "  [FDC]	28.11.2014  "Muttaburrasaurus"  [Sp] [PM2]
xx.xx.2015  "Charles Darwin"  [PM] [N]

Legend:
[FDC]  - Post Marks used on FDC of  official stamp
[PM]    - Permanent postmark: available for a long period of time
[Sp]      - Special postmark: issued for special event and was available for short period of time
[N]       - new design of early introduced postmarks


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.  
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 Queensland, Australia, 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]}


Postal stationery that related to Paleontology: dinosaurs, Charles Darwin

04.09.1980 "International museum day" [PS1]	15.01.1986 "150 anniversary of Charles Darwin' visit Australia"

Notes:
 [PS1] skeleton of Diprotodon, first discovered at Wellington Caves, depicted 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 deoicted 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]



References:
 [R1] More information about Australia are on Wikipedia  WikiTravel  Flag Counter
                Links to Australia's post authority and stamps  catalog websites are here
 [R2] More info about Shark Bay on Wikipedia
 [R3] More info about Willandra Lakes Regionon on Wikipedia
 [R4] More info about  Naracoorte cave on  environment.sa.gov.au
 [R5] More info about Lord Howe Island on Wikipedia
 [R6] More info about Diprotodon on Wikipedia
 [R7] More info about Hughenden are on Wikipedia, Australias Dinosaur Trail
 [R8] More info about Muttaburra on Wikipedia
 [R9] More info about Muttaburrasaurus are on Wikipedia, Australias Dinosaur Trail, Muttaburrasaurus langdoni

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