Sub-Collection: Tasmanian postmarks with a mining or mineral connection.
This cover bearing four different and relatively recent 43 cent Australian stamps arrived on an item of mail today with a clear Sandy Bay postmark. The contents of the mail will be shared in a later post! Although the stamps themselves represent wildlife, Antarctic heritage, and military history, the cancellation ties them to Sandy Bay, an area with local geological and mineralogical interest.
Stamp Details
Country: Australia and Australian Antarctic Territory
Series: Mixed Definitives & Commemoratives
Denomination: 43c (each stamp)
Subjects Included: Hawk Moth, Aurora Australis and the 30th Anniversary of the Antarctic Treaty, Siege of Tobruk – 50th Anniversary, and Cotton Harlequin Bug
Year of Issue: Early 1990s (exact years vary by stamp)
The presence of four different stamps provides a snapshot of Australia Post’s diverse thematic output during the early 1990s. The cover demonstrates active postal use rather than philatelic favouring.
Sandy Bay
Although best known today as an inner residential suburb of Hobart, Sandy Bay has a few local geological features. An outcrop of opal in basanite occurs in the area, along with calcite and zeolite mineralisation found in fractures within an old dolerite quarry face. These occurrences make Sandy Bay a minor but interesting locality for Tasmanian mineral collectors.
The Sandy Bay Post Office, opened in 1878 and still operating, provides a long and continuous postal history.
