Victoria followed New South Wales into the field (1864 wrappers) of posta1 stationery when issuing the first Australian envelopes in l869 and competed strongly with New South Wales to produce the very best postal stationery. It led all British Empire postal stationery in producing the first letter cards in 1889. Two of the more unusual items produced were the one penny and the three halfpencee postcards to Commemorate the arrival of the Great White fleet at Melbourne on 29 August 1908.

The design and embossing die for the first envelope were provided by De La Rue of London in 1869 but all subsequent Victoria stationery issues were designed, engraved and printed in Melbourne.

This exhibit displays the stationery issued by the Post Office for the use of the general public from 1869 until 1913 when the Commonwealth or Australia postal administration took over. The stationery is shown chronologically for the postcards, lettercards, envelopes, registered envelopes, wrappers and telegraph forms. Official, semi-official and printed-to-private-order stationery are excluded. Included are artist's sketches and proofs of stamp designs and essays proofs and specimens and catalogued and unlisted mint and used varieties of postal stationery. Catalogued dates of issue are revised to reflect the latest research; in some cases this alters the sequence of certain issues.

Selected Highlights:

In 1888 the Australian Colonies and the United Kingdom planned to off-load mail for the United Kingdom at Brindisi to pick up the fast overland stage to the English Channel. Special rated cards for this service were marked "Via Italy" and all too often the United Kingdom mail was off-loaded at Italian ports other than Brindisi. Overprinting of 3d card "via Brindisi" was authorized to eliminate the errors. It is not certain whether these overprinted cards were put to use. (Only this single mint card known)

The basic card format was used for both the one penny inland card and the three halfpenny international card. Note the different placement on the penny and the three halfpenny cards to compensate for the difference in width of the stamp impressions. The center card without a stamp impression (only reported copy) is the setting of the three halfpeneny card.

Although the proposal of the Commonwealth Postmaster General to print postcards with a matte finish for handpainting was received without enthusiasm, each state was directed to prepare between twenty and fifty pounds face value of the new more costly cards. Different designs were prepared for each state. Within fourteen months a great lack of interest in these cards was reported. In November 1913 all the statres were directted to sell all the remainig postcard stock as ordinary postcards.