Places

CUSTOMS HOUSE, CIRCULAR QUAY, SYDNEY HISTORIC BUILDING POSTCARD

The postcard was sent, dated in manuscript, on 19.4.(19)13 to a Robert Bruce, Washington D.C, U.S.A. and was received on May 20, and answered June 1. The contents of the message had nothing to do with the illustrated side, and the printed banner had an Australian shield with an emu on the left and a kangaroo on the right. The green ‘HALFPENNY’ and the red ‘ONE PENNY’ ‘Roo on Map

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WYANGALA DAM CONSTRUCTED on the LACHLAN RIVER, via WOODSTOCK

The cover is addressed to John W. Stuart Esq, Wyangala Dam, via Woodstock and the carmine-red 1½d ‘Centenary of Western Australia’ Swan stamp is postmarked with a roller cancel NORTH SYDNEY/ 13 OCT/ 1929/ 9 30 PM/ N.S.W. The reverse was not seen (Figure 1). The Wyangala Dam post office opened on 14 March 1929 and the first postmark was of the Type 2C configuration, with a stop after the

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WILLSON’S DOWNFALL, N.S.W. POSTMARK: ORIGIN OF THE NAME

In spite of my great interest in the postmarks of New South Wales for the past 15 years, I have seen only 2 examples of this early 1900s postmark, and the derivation of the name has evaded me in my intermittently, repeated searches. The difficulty of finding any clues has been compounded by the frequent misspelling of Willson as Wilson. The ‘Bible’ N.S.W. and A.C.T. Post, Receiving, Telegraph & Telephone

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W.M. SOMERVILLE, “LIBYA” , WOOLLAHRA: LETTER from WEST NORW00D, U.K.

This paper is about a heritage building in Sydney, ‘Libya’, and I have to admit at the outset that my research has been unfruitful in finding the reason for the name. I did learn something about William and Alice Somerville, the Aborigines that occupied the land before the white men came, the parcel of land that was divided up in Woollahra, (Aboriginal word for ‘a lookout’), as well as the

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TOOLEYBUC CROSSING OVER THE MURRAY RIVER IN THE N.S.W. RIVERINA

A single red 2d KGV stamp postmarked TOOLEYBUC/ 14 JE 35/ N. (S.W) with the Type 2A configuration (dates found 1914-77) caught my eye and my imagination, for I found that it was occasionally divided into two names, TOOLEY BUC, and I wondered who Tooley was, a pioneer or an explorer (Figure 1). I soon found a picture of a crossing over the Murray River in 1873 at the State

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THE MUTUAL STORE, MELBOURNE & W. TEMPLETON, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD

The printed to private order cover was addressed to W. Templeton, Esq., Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Mutual Store, Melbourne. The lilac ‘TWO PENCE’ stamp of Victoria was cancelled by a duplex postmark of MELBOURNE/ 1 K/ JL 16/ 85 with the barred obliterator VICTORIA. The reverse was not seen (Figure 1). William Templeton, public servant and company director, was born on 3 December 1828 in Glasgow,

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THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN CONSULS in AUSTRALIA 1881-1914

I have found 3 examples of covers sent from the Austro-Hungarian Consuls in Melbourne and Sydney in the period 1881 until outbreak of WW I in 1914. The first was an 1881 cover with a duplex postmark of MELBOURNE/ 26S/ JY 21/ 91 with VICTORIA as the obliterator on the purple brown one shilling Victorian stamp duty. The cover was addressed to Wien (Vienna), Austria and in manuscript it was

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STRAWBERRY HILLS to TALLINN, EESTI (ESTONIA)

This somewhat dilapidated cover intrigued me, not only because of its origin and delivery site, but also because of the route it took from a Sydney suburb to the capital of the Baltic country, Estonia. The cover is registered with a torn blue Strawberry Hills, N.S.W. registration label and the total postage of 5d is made up of the 4d olive and 1d green KGV heads (both perf. 13½ x

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REGISTERED COVER from ADELAIDE to MASONIC TEMPLE, MINNEAPOLIS, USA

This registered stampless O.H.M.S. cover has a squared circle REGISTERED ADELAIDE/ FE 9/ 03/ S.A postmark as well as a CORRESPONDENCE OFFICE/ FE 9/ 03/ G.P.O, partially obscuring an oval transit REGISTERED/ 14 (March) 1903/ LONDON. It was sent from the Post Office and Telegraph Department, Adelaide, S.A. and it had a large ‘R’ in an oval. There was an additional blue handstamp of ‘55719′, and 2 other black handstamps,

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RANELAGH, DARLING POINT, SYDNEY, THE PLACE & ITS PEOPLE

This relatively insignificant cover with the 2d red KGV stamp is postmarked OUTER HARBOUR/ 1-P (–) (–)/ 22/ STH AUSTRALIA, and is addressed to C.N. Gale, “Ranelagh”, Darling Point Road, Sydney, New South Wales (Fig. 1). The reverse has no postmarks but the flap is quite intriguing with the flags of 4 shipping companies (from left to right, U.N.Z., B.I., P.& O. and N.Z.) over a rising sun with human

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