Australia starts their 2024 stamps with a touch of nostalgia, pops over to a few parrots and then plunges right back into nostalgia. And I’ll make a bold prediction now about the set that will likely be the star of the season. Just take a look at Anita Xhafer’s delicious The Shared Table set.

Xhafer’s use of photorealism has produced a drool worthy set. I know, early days and all of that, but I can’t imagine a better design. All too often the photorealistic style bounces into a clinical study of the subject and ends up lacking a sense of the artists view or emotions. Xhafer avoids this trap and created a joyous celebration of diversity, The set feels like a love letter to the many cultures that have created Australia. In a 2014 interview she explained her passion:

I’ve always been attracted to realism, I love some of the old masters like Caravaggio etc. I love solidity I think. I do get carried away with details sometimes because I can’t help myself – perfection is totally illusive, but I try. Besides, it’s the little details that convey reality best, the way light falls on things can describe objects beautiful.
anita_xhafer.pdf (illustratorsaustralia.com)

Anita burst onto the stamp design world in 2017 with her first set Fruits of the Garden, for Cocos (Keeling) Islands. Since that time, she has gone on to design sets for Australia and Christmas Island. This just may be her best stamps to date. 

But first, lots of nostalgia to get us through the months. So far, the 2024 year is a lot of fun. Drop a message and let me know which set is the standout for you. 

January

Nostalgic Tinned Fruit Labels

3 stamps, souvenir sheet, 2 FDCs, 3 booklets of 10
offset 

Designer: Sharon Rodziewicz

Release date: January 22, 2024

February

Australian Ground Parrots

3 stamps, souvenir sheet, 2 FDCs, 3 booklets of 10

• Night Parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis) Night Parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis) | Parrot Encyclopedia (parrots.org)
• Western Ground Parrot (Pezoporus wallicus) Western Ground Parrot (Pezoporus flaviventris) | Parrot Encyclopedia (parrots.org)
• Eastern Ground Parrot (Pezoporus wallicus) Eastern Ground Parrot (Pezoporus wallicus) | Parrot Encyclopedia (parrots.org)

Designer: Sonia Young
Illustrator: Kevin Stead
Stead’s artwork appeared in Art of Australian Geographic Illustration. His illustrations have appeared on stamps from AAT, Cocos (Keeling) Island, Norfolk Island and Christmas Island. His first stamp was the 2003 Cocos (Keeling) Island Birds of the Shoreline set.

Release date: February 13, 2024

Retro Audio

3 stamps, 1 FDC, 1 medallion cover, 3 booklets of 10, stamp pack, 3 maxi cards
offset

• HMV Caprice, 1961
• Kriesler Master Multi Sonic, 1966
• AWA B28 Portable, 1963

Designer: Melissa Webb

Release date: February 20, 2024

Gert Sellheim Travel Posters

3 stamps, souvenir sheet, 2 FDCs, stamp pack, booklet of 20, 2 maxi cards

• Australia – Surf Club
• The Seaside Calls – Go by Train
• Sunshine and Surf – Australia

Gert Sellheim was a German-Australian graphic designer, well known for his iconic logos and designs. He was the designer behind Quantas’ flying kangaroo logo. His name was first attached to an Australian stamp in 1948 with his Aboriginal Art stamp.

Designer: Simone Sakinofsky, using Gert Sellheim’s work

Release date: February 27, 2024 

March

The Shared Table

4 stamps, souvenir sheet, 2 FDCs, stamp pack, 4 maxi cards, 4 booklets of 10
offset

• Mediterranean influence
• Asian influence
• Middle Eastern
• Indian influence

Designer: Sonia Young
Illustrator: Anita Xhafer
Xhafer’s art style is described as photorealistic, or hyper real. 

I’ve always been attracted to realism, I love some of the old masters like Caravaggio etc. I love solidity I think. I do get carried away with details sometimes because I can’t help myself – perfection is totally illusive,
but I try. Besides, it’s the little details that convey reality best, the way light falls on things can describe objects beautifully.
From a 2014 interview with Illustrators of Australia

Release date: March 12, 2024

Marine Emblems

3 stamps, souvenir sheet, FDC, 3 medallion covers, stamp pack, 3 maxi cards, booklets of 10
offset

This series celebrates the official emblems of some of Australia’s States and territories. 

• $1.50 South Australia – Leafy Seadragon Phycodurus eques
• $3.00 New South Wales – Eastern Blue Groper Achoerodus viridis
• $4.50 Queensland – Barrier Reef Anemonefish Amphiprion akindynos

Illustrator: Roger Swainston
Swainston wears three hats: painter, naturalist and zoologist. He specialises in underwater art. This means more than you think. He has found a way to actually draw while he is underwater:

Designer: Simone Sakinofsky

Release date: March 26, 2024

April

Special Occasions 2024

8 stamps, 8 sheets, 1 stamp pack with all 8 stamps
offset

• Red rose
• Tulips
• Rainbow cake
• Dahlia
• Champagne Flutes
• Wattle
• Kangaroo
• Wedding Rings

Illustrators and designers: Sonia Young, Australia Post Design Studio Jeanette Fallon (wattle and kangaroo)
Set designer: Jo Muré

Release date: April 3, 2024

ANZAC Day 2024 – Picturing War

3 stamps, FDC, medallion cover, cancel, 3 booklets of 10, souvenir sheet, sheet of 12, stamp pack
offset

• Herbert Baldwin (1880–1920) – “Australia’s first commissioned war photographer, engaged to record Australian troops on the Western Front in late 1916 and early 1917. Baldwin’s compelling works include sombre framings of the aftermath of bombings and intimate studies of soldiers.” 
  Photograph by unknown photographer from the collection of the Australian War Memorial, E00222

• Damien Parer (1912–44) – “The first photographer commissioned by the Australian government during World War II… He served behind the lens in the Middle East and North Africa, before joining Western forces in New Guinea in 1942. Parer was tragically killed by Japanese gunfire in 1944, while covering American operations in Palau”.
  Photograph by unknown photographer commissioned by the Department of Information Film Unit from the collection of the Australian War Memorial, 044860

• George Silk (1916–2004) – New Zealand-born, 2nd photographer commissioned WW2. “. He arrived in the Middle East in May 1940 and produced powerful images in Greece, Syria, Lebanon and Tobruk, before photographing the war campaign in the Pacific.”
  Photograph by Edward Lefevre (Ted) Cranstone from the collection of the Australian War Memorial, 001390/31

  Details from Anzac Day 2024: Picturing War – Australia Post (australiapostcollectables.com.au)

• Designer: Janet Boschen
  Boschen has designed stamps for Australia, Christmas Island, Nauru, AAR, East Timor and Russia. Her first stamp was the 1987 Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II. She was an Antarctic Arts Fellow in 1997-1998.
• Release date: April 16, 2024

May

Around Australia Flights: 100 Years

2 stamps, FDC, medallion cover, cancel, 2 maxi cards, gutter strip of 10, booklet of 10, stamp pack
offset

This set celebrates early flights by seaplanes and regular planes around mainland Australia. 

Fairey IIID seaplane A10-3 – First flight around the continent of Australia by a seaplane. It took WIng Commander Goble and Flying Officer McIntyre 20 days to cover 7,186 nautical miles.
Design used a 1930 photograph by Stan Copplestone, held by the Hilda Copplestone Collection, Library & Archives NT, PH0457/0018. 

The first flight began on 6 April 1924, when Wing Commander Stanley Goble and Flying Officer Ivor McIntyre set off from the RAAF base at Point Cook, Victoria, in a single-engine, open-cockpit, Fairey IIID seaplane, A10-3. The duo travelled anti-clockwise, via Sydney, Southport, Townsville, Thursday Island, across the Gulf of Carpentaria to Darwin, Broome, Carnarvon, Perth, Albany, and Port Lincoln and back to Victoria. They battled poor weather and constant engine trouble and in Carnarvon, Western Australia, the plane’s engine had to be replaced.  On 19 May, after 44 days and 13,600 kilometres, they alighted at St Kilda beach, Victoria, to an enthusiastic welcome from a 10,000-strong crowd gathered on the Esplanade. Around Australia Flights – 100 Years – Australia Post (australiapostcollectables.com.au)

Fairey III D Seaplane A10-3 flown by Wing Commander Goble and Flight Lt. McIntyre in Darwin during round Australia flight to win 1924 Brittania Trophy | Courtesy Library & Archives NT. (1930). Fairey III D Seaplane A10-3. Hilda Copplestone Collection, PH0457/0018. https://hdl.handle.net/10070/913756.

 

June 24, 1924, Gobel and McIntyre held up after their successful flight. Public domain photo courtesy https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C227957

 

De Havilland D.H.50 G-AUAB – second flight around mainland Australia and first in a land plane as part of a test of the De Havilland aircraft’s long-distance capabilities. This time it was a flight undertaken by 3 parts, covering 12,324 kilometres. 

The crew of the aircraft, registered G-AUAB, comprised expedition leader and Controller of Civil Aviation, Lt Col HC Brinsmead; pilot Captain EJ Jones, the CAB’s Superintendent of Flying Operations and Personnel; and mechanic RH Buchanan, an assistant Superintendent of Engineering. After departing Point Cook on 7 August, the trip was undertaken in three stages: Melbourne to Darwin via Bourke, Longreach and Cloncurry; Darwin to Perth; and Perth back to Point Cook, where they alighted on 29 August after flying 12,324 kilometres. Around Australia Flights – 100 Years – Australia Post (australiapostcollectables.com.au)

DH50 G-AUAB side – CAHS/E.C. Johnston collection

Crew of the aircraft during a break in their flight. 1924, courtesy Airways Museum

Ad placed in newspaper showing the 1924 flight route. Courtesy https://airwaysmuseum.com/Round%20Australia%20Flight%201924.htm

 

Design used a photograph from the Stephen Barnham collection.

 

Designer: Andrew Hogg Design
Hogg’s first stamp design was the150th Anniversary of First Australian Coin series from 2005.

Release date: May 21, 2024

June

Sky Country: The Seven Sisters

The Seven Sisters are stars in the Pleiades group.  The aboriginal story describes how the 7 sisters, traveled across ancestral routes across the deserts, fleeing from a sorcerer. 

The dramatic narrative of the Seven Sisters tells one of the most significant Songlines. It can be tracked across the continent from the north of Western Australia, all the way to the east coast, across the Indigenous lands. This stamp issue depicts the story and perspectives of women from three lands: Martu Country in the Great Sandy Desert (May Chapman), Ngaanyatjarra Lands in the Great Victoria Desert (Angilyiya Mitchell) and the Anungu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in the north-west of South Australia (Nyunmiti Burton). Sky Country: The Seven Sisters – Australia Post (australiapostcollectables.com.au)

“Many, many years I’ve been working as a teacher…then I chose to come to work at Tjala Arts [the art centre]… Every day I came to do painting because I’ve got in my head Tjurkupa– that’s all I’m doing.”
Nyunmiti Burton in a 2015 interview

Kungkarangkalpa 
2020, synthetic polymer paint on linen, held at Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
This artwork tells the story of how the oldest sister protects the other sisters, ensuring none of the other sisters are left behind. 
Artist: Nyunmiti Burton of the Pitjantjatjara people

Burton is a senior Pitjantjatjara woman – a desert matriarch. A leader in her community, she is the currentVice Chairperson of Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (NPY) Women’s Council, she teaches Pitjantjatjara at the University of South Australia and is a co-director of the APY Art Centre Collective. Alongside her advocacy work and cultural leadership, Burton is a highly esteemed artist whose large-scale canvases depict her country and Tjukurpa (ancestral law, culture and creation stories) in bold swathes of colour. “Many, many years I’ve been working as a teacher…then I chose to come to work at Tjala Arts [the art centre]… Every day I came to do painting because I’ve got in my head Tjurkupa– that’s all I’m doing.”
Nyunmiti Burton – AGSA 

Kungkarrangkalpa 
2014, acrylic on canvas, held by the National Museum of Australia. The story picks up with the sisters stopping “at a rocky escarpment at Kura Ala, the sisters (Kungkarrangkalpa) ate part of Wati Nyiru, who had transformed into a carpet snake. They became ill and vomited before escaping, flying up to become stars.” 

Kuniya (carpet snake) fly away, flew to Kulyuru. This lady [Eldest Seven Sister] was looking around, looking around. There was big hole where the big Kuniya went into the anthill. Those ladies were digging, digging trying to find the kuniya “Look there, look!” but the Kuniya went out. They chased him to this place Minma Ngampi where they caught that kuniya. Those ladies cooked it and ate it but it was a funny taste and they couldn’t walk anymore…. [The ladies flew up to the sky into the stars]’. Lesley Laidlaw and Julie Porter (nee Laidlaw), Warburton 12 September 2016 in ‘Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters’, 2017 – Exhibition text.
Collection Explorer (nma.gov.au)

Artist: Angilyiya Tjapiti Mitchell 

Angilyiya (also spelt as Angilya, Angiliya) was born near to Blackstone Ranges in Emu Country near Kunmarnarra Bore. There are important men’s Dreamings in this country which is a traditional law area. She is a strong Law woman with wonderful bush skills, holding a wealth of traditional knowledge and capacity to live on this land. Recently Angilyiya was appointed the caretaker for an important woman’s dreaming, linked to the Seven Sisters story in country a little south of Blackstone.

…

She created her first painting in 1994 and has been consistently active as an artist since and has also made limited edition prints. She is energetic and takes an interest in many things and has turned her hand to wood carving to make punu (small wood sculptures) and wira (bowls) and making bush medicines.

She is very active in teaching and mentoring in language, culture and heritage. She is frequently called upon by the local Land Management team to come on trips and ‘talk for rockholes’ because of her knowledge of country/sites and ability to teach about ethnobotany and share Tjukurrpa (ancestral creation) stories.

She has also been a keen member of NPY Women’s Council and of Tjanpi Desert Weavers (TDW) making sculptural objects such as baskets and animal figures out of natural fibre tjarnp (local grasses), raffia and wool.

Fat Quarter – Seven Sisters – Angilyiya Mitchell – Flying Fox Fabrics

Janawa
2009, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, held by the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
Janawa represents a place the sisters first fled to in their travels, while pursing Yurla. 

Artist: May Chapman

Mayiwalku May Chapman is the eldest sister of fellow Martumili Artists Nancy Nyanjilpayi (Ngarnjapayi) Chapman, Mulyatingki Marney and Marjorie Yates (dec.). Her mother was Warnman and her father was Manyjilyjarra. Mayiwalku was born to the East, in Yirnangarri, “where the two footprints lie”. Her family’s Country extends across the Punmu, Kunawarritji (Canning Stock Route Well 33) and Karlamilyi (Rudall River) regions. Following the death of both their parents, Mayiwalku and her sisters travelled alone between Punmu and Kunawarritji, occasionally meeting with other family groups. They later walked south into Karlamilyi, where they first saw a plane flying overhead. Petrified, they hid under spinifex grass until the plane had passed.

[She lives] in Warralong today with her daughter and equally renowned artist, Doreen Chapman. Mayiwalku was one of Martumili’s pioneering artists, and is highly regarded for her technically sophisticated works. Her paintings depict her ngurra (home Country, camp); the Country she walked as a young woman, its animals, plants, waterholes and associated Jukurrpa (Dreaming) narratives. Mayiwalku’s work has been exhibited widely across Australia and internationally, and acquired by the National Museum of Australia.
May Mayiwalku (May Wokka) Chapman – IDAIA

3 stamps,  1 stamp pack, threes booklets of 10, 3 maxi cards ( gutter strips also available)
offset

Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters | National Museum of Australia (nma.gov.au) 

Songlines touring exhibition | National Museum of Australia (nma.gov.au)

Designer: Sharon Rodziewicz

 Release date: June 4, 2024

Path to Paris: Paris 2024 Olympic Games

1 stamp, 3 FDCs in a pack, maxi card, sheet pack, sheet of 10
offset

Designer: Tim Hancock, Backpack
Hancock has designed stamps for both Cocos (Keeling) and Australia.. 

Release date: June 24, 2024 

July

A Free Press: 200 Years

1 stamp, sheetlet of 10, sheet pack, maxi card
offset

Australia Post included an excellent synopsis of the history of free press in Australia. It’s quite substantial, but an good read:

In our modern liberal democracy, we expect the press and other media channels to be able to express free opinion without censorship or the intervention of government. This was not always the case; early newspapers in the colonies existed primarily to promulgate the wishes of government and quash any dissent, particularly among the convict population.

In 1824, the first two uncensored newspapers were published in the colonies. The first was edition no. 422 of the Hobart Town Gazette and Van Diemen’s Land Advertiser, printed on 4 June by then Government Printer Andrew Bent (c. 1791–1851), a former convict. Before publication, all proofs of the newspaper had to be submitted for government censorship. In May 1824, just as the popular Lieutenant Governor Sorrell was replaced by the less liberal George Arthur, tensions arose between Bent and his government-appointed editor. Bent replaced him with an editor sympathetic to the ideals of a free press, and on 4 June, printed the newspaper without submitting the proofs. Arthur resisted Bent’s move, claiming the Gazette as government property, but was thwarted when Bent, who owned the printing equipment, successfully appealed to the Governor in Chief, Sir Thomas Brisbane. Bent’s newspaper proceeded to criticise and attack the government. He was dismissed as Government Printer in June 1825, convicted of libeling the authorities, fined and imprisoned. He continued to print newspapers, often critical of government and private individuals, and was repeatedly prosecuted for libel before moving to Sydney in 1839.

The second uncensored newspaper was The Australian, first printed in Sydney on 14 October 1824 and published until 1848. The owners of the paper were lawyer Robert Wardell (1793¬–1834) and eminent explorer, landowner and lawyer William Charles Wentworth (1790–1872), who brought a printing press and type with them when they arrived in Sydney from Britain in July that year. The broadsheet championed liberal views and received the approval of Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane, who “considered it most expedient to try the experiment of the full latitude of the freedom of the Press”. The first edition of the paper declared it to be “independent, yet consistent—free, yet not licentious—equally unmoved by favours and by fear—we shall pursue our labours without either a sycophantic approval of, or a systematic opposition to, acts of authority, merely because they emanate from government”. Government censorship of newspapers was abandoned in New South Wales from this point.

The two newspapers were crucial in helping to establish the free press in Australia. They gave voice to all, including the disenfranchised and convicts, and created a forum for calling the colonial government to account. 
A Free Press: 200 Years – Australia Post (australiapostcollectables.com.au)

You can read more here:
ANDREW BENT: Father of the Free Press in Australia – Life and Times of ‘Little Struggler’ (1791-1851): London – Hobart Town – Sydney/Kempsey (andrew-bent.life)
Robert Wardell – The Australian Media Hall of Fame (melbournepressclub.com)

Designer: Jonathan Chong
Jonathan has designed stamps for Australia post for over 20 years.  His first design was the 2002 Queen Elizabeth II, Golden Jubilee set. One of his best designs was the 2008 Civil Aviation series he co-designed with Jamie Tufrey

Release date: July 9, 2024

Centenary of Compulsory Voting

1 stamp, sheetlet of 10, sheet pack, maxi card
offset

Designer: Visua®

Release date: July 16, 2024 

August

Koalas in Danger

3 stamps, souvenir sheet, 3 maxi cards, also available 3 medallion covers, gutter strips  and booklets
offset

Australia post has made it a bit difficult to get captures of covers etc. I’m working on getting them for you.

Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) is now listed as an endangered species primarily due to humans screwing up the environment.

The dramatic decline in populations can be attributed to habitat loss, climate change and associated extreme weather events, including bushfires and flood. The destruction and fragmentation of habitat means Koalas must spend more time on the ground moving from tree to tree. This makes them much more vulnerable to being hit by cars and attacked by dogs, while elevated levels of stress make them prone to sickness and disease.
Koalas in Danger – Australia Post

Designer: Sonia Young
Photographers in order: 
Suzi Eszterhas/Minden Pictures
David Cunningham
John Carnemolla/Getty Images

Release date: August 20, 2024 

September

Kid’s Showtime Greats

5 stamps, 5 maxi cards, also available 5 medallion covers, gutter strips, stamp packs  and booklets
offset

• Skippy the Bush Kangaroo
• Round the Twist
• Dot and the Kangaroo
• Blinky Bill
• Babe

Designer: Coombes Whitechurch Design

Release date: September 2, 2024

100 Years of Brownlow

Release date: September 23. 2024 

October

Universal Postal Union – 150 Years

Release date: October 1. 2024

Kalkadoon Dreaming

Release date: October 15, 2024

November

Christmas

Release date: November 1. 2024

The King’s Birthday

Release date: November 1, 2024