PLACES

This fairly unique destination cover to a long-time troublesome area, now in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region,  is related to a series of conflicts starting with the Anglo-Afghan wars during the imperialist Great Game between the United Kingdom and Russia which led to the dismemberment of Afghanistan.

The front which was not seen is a real photo, b/w postcard of ‘The Blow Hole, near Flinders’.   The reverse shows it is an Australian card made by The Standard Post Card Co. sent from Janowe Street, Sebastopol to Bombardier H. Wells, 62nd Bty (Battery), N.F.A., Nowshera., N. West Frontier, India.  The brown-red on yellow paper 1½d stamp of Victoria is cancelled with a duplex BALLARAT/ AM/ 9 (N)O/ (--)-6-09 with a barred numeral ‘5'.  There is a fine reception postmark of NOWSHERA/ 7.-A,M./ 22 JL O9.  The legible portion of the message reads: Mr. Wells, I shall be pleased to exchange P.Cards with you, instead of Miss Hay.  Miss Sadie [illegible].  In addition there is a partial transit postmark of (TU)TICORIN/ 16 JY/ 09/ --.20 PM (Figure 1).

ADELAIDE to KINSHASA via LONDON, LISBON, BANANA & BOMA, CONGO

AREQUIPA, PERU: A TALE OF A GOLDMINE, COCA LEAVES & COCA COLA

It is just over two years since I first saw a cover addressed to a doctor in Arequipa Peru, and it has taken me all this time to find enough, albeit very limited, information about the addressee. I had been attracted to the name Arequipa, since my success in buying a modest number of shares of Arequipa Resources, a goldmine in Peru, prior to its takeover by the giant Canadian Barrick Gold.

AUBURN N.S.W. LETTER to DR. ROLANDO GUIDOTTI, SIDI MESRI, LYBIA

This letter was sent in March 1951 from Auburn N.S.W. to Dr. Rolando Guidotti, Sidi Mesri Experimental Farm, Tripoli L'Africa, Lybia, North Africa by Air Mail. It was franked with 3 stamps, the small 6d Kookaburra, the 9d platypus and the 3d KGVI head stamp, a total of 1 shilling 6 pence. There is a reception postmark in arabic on the front (Figure 1).

BURRINJUCK DAM, MAJOR DAM for the MURRUMBIDGEE IRRIGATION AREA

CAPTAINS FLAT N.S.W. to CARTAGO, COSTA RICA

An ordinary first day cover can tell quite a story with humble beginnings in rural N.S.W. and exotic endings in Central America. The cover celebrates Baron Sir Ferdinand Jakob Heinrich von Mueller (1825-1896) born in Germany of Danish origin and died in Melbourne. The cover has 2 copies of the red 2½d von Mueller stamp postmarked CAPTAIN'S FLAT/ 13 SP 48/ N.S.W and it is addressed to Mr. James Wood, Box 124, Cartago, Costa Rica, Central America (Figure 1).

CHARLES DIBBIN, BOY, ROYAL MILITARY ASYLUM, CHELSEA, nr. LONDON

COLONIA NUEVA AUSTRALIA in PARAGUAY

Two items of considerable interest were found on Australian stamp auction sites. The first was a rare cover with faint markings dated 5-SET 1930/ PARAGUAY of the first internal flight from Ascunsion to Colonia Nueva (New) Australia (as an arrival cds) franked with 2 Republic of Paraguay stamps (Scott 288, 291), total postage of P2.50 (Peso), and the stamps were postmarked in a diamond with 'ENSAYO/ SEVICIO/ AEREO/ INTERNO'. It was addressed to Norman Stocky/ JEFE CORREOS/ COLONIA NUEVA AUSTRALIA (Figure 1).

DAWSON CITY, YUKON, CANADA: TWO POSTCARDS from CONSUL to CONSUL

Two pictorial postcards from Australian States were addressed to the American Vice Consul in Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada.. The first was mailed from Melbourne in February 1906 with the blue 2½d Victoria stamp and was addressed Hon. J. Carlton Woodward, American Vice & Deputy Consul, Dawson City, Y.T. (Yukon Territory), Canada. On its reverse it showed a black & white General View of Collins Street, Melbourne, with a short message: "Feby 9, 1906/ With compliments of John P. Bray, American Consul General, Melbourne, Australia" (Figures 1 & 2).

DIRECTOR, PHILADELPHIA COMMERCIAL MUSEUM LETTER from SYDNEY

FDR & HIS PANAMA HAT, MADE in ECUADOR

A very ordinary cover can be a source of an unusual story about a famous man who wore a special hat at an important WWII conference. The cover bearing a green 1d KGV head stamp cancelled by a partial VISIT/ SUNNY/ AUSTRALIA and a boxed SYDNEY/ N.S.W./ 6 PM/14 NOV/ 1935/ POSTED/ OVERSEAS BOX is addressed to Mr. C.A, Arcentales, P.O. Box T., GUAYAQUIL, ECUADOR, S.A. (Figure 1).

ILLUSTRATED ENVELOPE to DURBAN, NATAL SOUTH AFRICA

At first glance one might think that this was sent as a First Day cover for the 150th Anniversary of the Founding of New South Wales 3d blue stamp (part of a set of 3, the others being the 2d red and 9d purple). The stamp shows Captain Phillip at Sydney Cove 1788 and the stamp is inscribed with two years, 1788 and 1938, in the top left and right hand corners, respectively. The set was issued on 01 OCT 1937, whereas the stamp is postmarked 21 FE 38, and the event is celebrated yearly as Australia Day on the 26 January. All this produces a degree of date confusion, but the cover is certainly not a F.D.C. (Figure 1).

J. H. STILSON Jnr., BALBOA HEIGHTS, CANAL ZONE, PANAMA

KATSINA, NORTHERN NIGERIA, WEST AFRICA

This airmail cover registered at Windsor N.S.W., is postmarked WINDSOR/26 NO 62/ N.S.W. and is addressed to J.A. Regan, Esq, P.O.B.26, Katsina, Northern Nigeria, West Africa. It has a copy of the blue 2/- Flannel Flowers stamp and the 2/3 British Empire & Commonwealth Games, Perth 1962 stamp, the latter being issued 1 Nov 1962. The combined postage of 4/3 is for the ½ ounce airmail letter rate to Africa (2/3) plus the registration rate of 2/- (Figure 1).

MELBOURNE to BANNINGVILLE, BELGIAN CONGO

Australian covers to the former Belgian Congo are not common. The present cover provides information concerning the routing within the Belgian Congo in the year 1937. A registered cover from Melbourne identifies the sender on the reverse as W.I. Urquhart, 125 Domain Road, Melbourne S.E.1. It is addressed to M(onsieur) Fernand Trokay with the simple address of Banningville, Belgian Congo, Africa.

MELBOURNE, PER S.S. MOANA to WALLA WALLA, 1902 [USA]

Australians may have heard of the small New South Wales town of Walla Walla which is 26 km south-west of Culcairn, at least double that distance north of the border towns of Albury, N.S.W.-Wodonga, Victoria, and 554 km south-west of Sydney. But the fact that this letter set sail on the S.S. Moana should alert them to the fact that this Walla Walla was elsewhere. The first Europeans to pass through the area in N.S.W. were the explorers Hume and Hovell in 1824, but it was not until 1834 that the first squatters moved in.

MELBOURNE-LA SERENA via MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY & VALPARAISO, CHILE

MOURNING COVER to JAMES HARRISON, SQUATTERS EXCHANGE, SYDNEY

This mourning cover was of a fairly common design for use in colonial Australia, being small in size (12 x 6.5 cms) and the design of the black border on the front and the black cross on the reverse. It was addressed to James Harrison Esq, Squatters Exchange, George Street, Sydney, and the red-brown 3d QV sideface stamp of Tasmania has been canceled by a HOBART TOWN/ 2 L/ FE 2/ 72 duplex TASMANIA postmark. There was a manuscript: pr. "City of Hobart"notation (Figure 1).

PETTY'S HOTEL: A SYDNEY SITE with a LONG PROVENANCE

This registered cover shows the full set of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester stamps which were issued on 19 Feb 1945. It was postmarked G.P.O. SYDNEY/ R.C.S./ 5-P 20 FE 45/ 1/ N.S.W. AUST. There is no registration label, but the blue crossed lines front and reverse clearly show it was registered.. The cover is addressed to Lt: T.B. Harrop./ R.N.V.R./ R.N.O.Q. (Petty's Hotel)/ York Street. Sydney./ N.S.W. Australia (Fig. 1).

RABAT, FRENCH MOROCCO from CABRAMATTA, N.S.W. REGISTERED LETTER

This cover has a fine vignette of the 150^th Anniversary, Sydney Souvenir Cover (1788-1938) with a map of Australia, a portrait of Captain Cook, an Aborigine, a kookaburra, a kangaroo, an emu, and a stylized central picture of the Settlement of Port Jackson in 1788. The cover was printed in Cabramatta (see lower right hand corner of vignette) and it has a registration label for Cabramatta, N.S.W. It has the blue 3d and red 2d KGVI as well as the green 1d Queen Elizabeth definitive stamps, which are postmarked CABRAMATTA/ 11 AP 39/ N.S.W. It is addressed to Monsieur Karoui, 22 Rue de Naples, Rabat (French Morocco). There is a manuscript ‘Voir au dos’ (See back), as well as a boxed RETOUR/ L’ ENVOYEUR (Return to sender) (Figure 1).

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

ROBERT BROUGH & DION BOUCICAULT, COMEDY COMPANY, SHANGHAI

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 12½, small multiple watermark). Both stamps are clearly postmarked STRAWBERRY HILLS/ 11 NO 31/ N.S.W., but the front has 3 additional and different in-transit postmarks: GLEBE/ 12 NO 31/ N.S.W., WILLIAM STREET/ 13 NO 31/ N.S.W as well as an arrival postmark of (TA)LLINN/ 12/ 12/ 31/ EESTI (Figure 1).

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 inscribed ‘per S.S. Arcadia’ via Brindisi (Figure 1).

TIRRIKIBA N.S.W. to CERRO de PASCO COPPER CORP, PERU

This common registered First Day Cover has particular interest on account of the address as well as the fine documentation of its routing on the reverse. It has a blue Tirrikiba registration label plus the crossed red crayon marking, and the pairs of the 1d green Queen Elizabeth and 2d red KGVI stamps are faintly postmarked 10 MY 37. The address is given in detail as P.S.K. Hodgson, Cerro de Pasco Copper Corp, Casilla 2412, Lima Peru, S. America (Figure 1).

WYANGALA DAM CONSTRUCTED on the LACHLAN RIVER,