Philately From Australia December 1949 | Tasmanian Pictorials
tThe recent articles by Dr. Bruce, on the T.P.O.s. of New South Wales, made me
wonder what was known about those of the other States. A short account of the
T.P.O.s. of Queensland, by Alec Gavin, appeared in the Australian Stamp Monthly
of July, 1940, and friends have collected (but not chronicled) the marks used by
those of Victoria, but I have been unable to discover that the rest are not virgin
ground.
1 decided that Tasmania should suffer from my attentions, as I already had a col-
lection, both stamps with T.P.O. markings. I bombarded those of my friends who
took an interest in collecting T.P.O.s in general, and, thanks to them, raised the
score to six. Mr. T. E. Petterd, the authority on matters stampic in Tasmania, re-
ceived an S.0.S. and nobly responded with sufficient of his duplicates to bring me
into double figures. Furthermore, Mr. Petterd kindly gave me information about
the various types he had in his collection and the earliest and last dates.
Bill Purves surrendered to my blandishments and loaned me many thousands of
Tasmanian Pictorials, from which I culled about fifty examples of T.P.O. marks.
This is interesting, as I consider that it works out that some 1% of Tasmanian
stamps of that period were obliterated on Travelling Post Offices. The percentage
would be lower but for the deft wielding of the date-stamp by the Tasmanian Pos-
tal Officials of these days. It is true that they had a fairly large target during the
currency of the Pictorials, but they were remarkable shots, kept their weapons clean
and nearly always scored a bull. Seldom does one meet that collectors’ desideratum,
the superb used—or, in other words, “a kiss in the corner.”
As my material seemed to be coming along nicely, 1 thought it an idea to get
cracking on the railway angle.
The first railway in Tasmania ran from Launceston to Deloraine and was opened
in 1871. It runs roughly from east to west, along the northern coast of the Island,
and is always referred to, in railway parlance, as the WESTERN LINE. It was
prolonged to Devonport, then to Ulverstone in 1890, to Burnie in 190), to Myalla
in 1913 and finally to Stanley.
The second railway to come into existence was that from Hobart to Launceston,
opened in 1876. It was built by a private company, called the Tasmanian Main
Line Railway Company Limited., and was taken over by the Government in 1890.
It has always been known as the MAIN LINE.
Various more or less important branches were built from time to time, but only
the MAIN LINE and the WESTERN LINE have significance from the T.P.O.
angle—with one exception, to be later mentioned,
130
TASMANIA’S T.P.O.s
Up to the taking over of the Main Line, I have not been able to trace the
existence of a T.P.O. Undoubtedly, the mails went by railway, but they were pre-
sumably carried in closed bags from point to point. However, the Annual Report
for 1891 states: “3 Mail Vans have been erected during the year.” It is evident
that the mail compartment was quite small, as a job reported to have been done in
1893 was “putting additional first class compartments into the Mail Vans.” Until
the turn of the century these three vans appear in the list of rolling stock, without
additions.
Turning to the time-table, from the early nineties trains, yclept “The Mail,”
left both Hobart and Launceston about 8 p.m. and ambled into the other terminus
(133 miles) 11 hours later. The Western Line train left Launceston in the morning,
in connection with “The Mail,” ran to the then terminus and returned the same
day, again connecting with the Main Line Mail. In later vears a second daily
train was run on the Western Line.
In the following table 1 give particulars of the various known date-stamps and
the earliest and latest known dates of use, with name of the owner in brackets,
Inscription Type Earliest Date Latest Date
(omitting Tas.)
T.M.L. Ry. No. 1 A
7.1.96 (Petterd)
2.9.11 (Petterd)
T.M.L: Ry. No. 2 A 12.6.00 (Dovey) 20.2.12 (Purves)
T.M.L. Ry. No. 3 A 24.2.00 (Purves) 19.4.11 (Purves)
TPO. No. 1 C 22.1.13 (Purves) 2.3.17 (Porter)
TPO: No. 2 ®) 22.10.12 (Porter) 12.8.14 (Purves)
T.P.O. No. 3 el 31.5.12 (Purves) 30.3.15 (Porter)
T.P.O. No. 4 B 2.8.03 (Petterd) 2.8.12 (Petterd)
T.P.O, No. 5 B 31.8.03 (Porter) 28.9.12 (Porter)
T.P.O. No. 6 C (without time) 3.1.09 (Dovey) 22.4.17 (Porter)
TRON No. 8 D 1.6.15 (Porter) 25.6.15 (Porter)
T.P.O. FE 28.9.24 (Porter) 28.9.24 (Porter)
WESTERN
LINE
It will be appreciated that a large part of the period covered by the above dates
is that during which the Tasmanian Pictorial series was on issue, i.e. December,
1899, until the appearance of Australian stamps at the beginning of 1913. T con-
sider it likely that Travelling Post Offices made their appearance on the Main
Line early in the nineties, which means that their date-stamps should be found
on the stamps, with effigy of Queen Victoria, current at that time. Further
examples will doubtless be reported, but large bulk lots of these stamps are hard
to come by and also I have reason to think that the date-stamp was often applied
to the cover, and the stamp itself obliterated with a dumb “killer.”
131
PHILATELY FROM AUSTRALIA
I think that we are on safe ground if we postulate that the three date-stamps
of Type “A” were used on the Main Line; they were probably all made at the
same time and withdrawn at the same time, being replaced by the corresponding
numbers of Type “C” on a date between March and May, 1912. According to
information kindly supplied by the Deputy-Director of Posts at Hobart, the local
records are not complete, but it is thought that the T.P.O. on the Main Line was
discontinued about 1912. Unless the last mentioned date-stamps of Type “C”
were transferred to another service, it would seem that the closure took place a few
vears later.
uA»
The reason why three date-stamps were used may have been that there were
three Travelling Postmasters on the route and that each, in turn, spent one night
travelling from Hobart to Launceston, the next on the tip from Launceston to
Hobart and the third night off duty.
As regards the Western Line, the evidence seems to
indicate that the first T.P.O. was inaugurated in the middle
of 1903. As it was a day service and the turn of duty was
over 12 hours from leaving Launceston until returning
there, possibly the Postmaster would only be on duty every
second day, which would account for there being two date-
stamps. Six years later, in 1909, a third datestamp, No. 6,
appears. From information kindly obtained from old postal
employees by Mrs. Reeves, Secretary of the Launceston Philatelic Society, in
latter years it was the practice for Travelling Postmasters to be stationed at both
Launceston and Burnie, and they swapped trains at the station where they
crossed and returned to their home station. At that period both the morning
and afternoon trains, in both directions, had T.P.O.s attached.
The T.P.Os on the Western Line were “axed” during the depression and
ceased to function after August 31st, 1932. Since then, Tasmania has been
T.P.O.less! Again I owe this information to the Deputy-Director of Posts for
Tasmania.
As will be seen from Figure “D”, the original T.P.O. No. 5 datestamp
suffered from Anno Domini and was replaced prior to 1915. It may well be
132
TASMANIA’S T.P.O.s
that this happened in other cases. I have already stated that I thought that the
number of Tasmanian stamps used in the T.P.O.s was under 1% of the total
usage. How many places of decimals one would have to go to before express-
ing the percentage of Australian stamps cancelled on the T.P.O.s of Tasmania,
I know not—any way, it is infinitesimal. This being so, the difficulty of obtain-
ing material to establish what happened in the ‘twenties of this century has, so
far, successfully shrouded the issue. 1 have a solitary example of a date-stamp,
used in 1924, with the motto “T.P.O. WESTERN LINE”—without indication
of “up” or “down” or a “gang” number. T can but hope that any reader who has
had the hardihood to fare thus far and who possesses any such material, will let
me have particulars, for the common weal.
There is one other possible T.P.O., which may prove nebulous. In February,
1892, the Government opened an isolated railway from the west coast port of
Strahan to the mining centre of Zechan, 30 miles away. In-
cidentally, in the list of post offices closed in 1893 appears
Strahan. A date-stamp. illustrated in Fig. “F”, is known used
between 3.2.98 (Porter) and March, 1901 (Purves). The
inscription is “STRAHAN NO. 2,” and I know of no other
instance of the use of “No.” followed by a numeral except on
the datestamps of the T.P.Oss. In December, 1900, the Emu “FB”
Bay Railway, which had existed from Burnie to Waratah since 1884, was prolonged
to Zeechan. It was early in 1901 that the Western Line was put into traffic be-
tween Ulverstone and Burnie, thus completing rail communication to Zeehan and
eliminating the necessity of sending the mails by sea to Strahan. Whoever the
postmaster was who applied this date-stamp, he was not in the same class for
markmanship as his brothers elsewhere, and Messrs. Dovey, Purves and 1 all had
to contribute bits before the whole inscription could be reconstructed.
In my endeavours to establish the existence or otherwise of this T.P.O., 1
asked the postmaster at Strahan if he could help me. After some lapse of time,
my letter came back with a note on it by a Mr. P. H. Smith, who said that he
was a clerk at Zeehan Railway Station 52 years ago and thinks he is the only
one of the old ones alive. Mr. Smith does not know of any Travelling Post Office
on the Strahan Line, but he does remember that the guard used to hand out the
letters to the people living along the line. Mr. Smith says he left Zeehan fifty
years ago, so that the Strahan postmaster must have gone to a lot of trouble to locate
him.
Six months ago I knew nothing about the T.P.O.s of Tasmania, and 1 realise
finality has not been reached, —but this is a start. I trust I have written in such
a way as to emphasise the help and co-operation 1 have received from many kind
folk, stamp-lovers and otherwise. 1 merely elected myself promoter and recorder
of a Study Circle, in pursuit of information on one tiny topic. Now I pass on the
details garnered, hoping that others will add thereto.
FIJI’S WAR PROVISIONAL
The recent articles by Dr. Bruce, on the T.P.O.s. of New South Wales, made me
wonder what was known about those of the other States. A short account of the
T.P.O.s. of Queensland, by Alec Gavin, appeared in the Australian Stamp Monthly
of July, 1940, and friends have collected (but not chronicled) the marks used by
those of Victoria, but I have been unable to discover that the rest are not virgin
ground.
1 decided that Tasmania should suffer from my attentions, as I already had a col-
lection, both stamps with T.P.O. markings. I bombarded those of my friends who
took an interest in collecting T.P.O.s in general, and, thanks to them, raised the
score to six. Mr. T. E. Petterd, the authority on matters stampic in Tasmania, re-
ceived an S.0.S. and nobly responded with sufficient of his duplicates to bring me
into double figures. Furthermore, Mr. Petterd kindly gave me information about
the various types he had in his collection and the earliest and last dates.
Bill Purves surrendered to my blandishments and loaned me many thousands of
Tasmanian Pictorials, from which I culled about fifty examples of T.P.O. marks.
This is interesting, as I consider that it works out that some 1% of Tasmanian
stamps of that period were obliterated on Travelling Post Offices. The percentage
would be lower but for the deft wielding of the date-stamp by the Tasmanian Pos-
tal Officials of these days. It is true that they had a fairly large target during the
currency of the Pictorials, but they were remarkable shots, kept their weapons clean
and nearly always scored a bull. Seldom does one meet that collectors’ desideratum,
the superb used—or, in other words, “a kiss in the corner.”
As my material seemed to be coming along nicely, 1 thought it an idea to get
cracking on the railway angle.
The first railway in Tasmania ran from Launceston to Deloraine and was opened
in 1871. It runs roughly from east to west, along the northern coast of the Island,
and is always referred to, in railway parlance, as the WESTERN LINE. It was
prolonged to Devonport, then to Ulverstone in 1890, to Burnie in 190), to Myalla
in 1913 and finally to Stanley.
The second railway to come into existence was that from Hobart to Launceston,
opened in 1876. It was built by a private company, called the Tasmanian Main
Line Railway Company Limited., and was taken over by the Government in 1890.
It has always been known as the MAIN LINE.
Various more or less important branches were built from time to time, but only
the MAIN LINE and the WESTERN LINE have significance from the T.P.O.
angle—with one exception, to be later mentioned,
TASMANIA’S T.P.O.s
Up to the taking over of the Main Line, I have not been able to trace the
existence of a T.P.O. Undoubtedly, the mails went by railway, but they were pre-
sumably carried in closed bags from point to point. However, the Annual Report
for 1891 states: “3 Mail Vans have been erected during the year.” It is evident
that the mail compartment was quite small, as a job reported to have been done in
1893 was “putting additional first class compartments into the Mail Vans.” Until
the turn of the century these three vans appear in the list of rolling stock, without
additions.
Turning to the time-table, from the early nineties trains, yclept “The Mail,”
left both Hobart and Launceston about 8 p.m. and ambled into the other terminus
(133 miles) 11 hours later. The Western Line train left Launceston in the morning,
in connection with “The Mail,” ran to the then terminus and returned the same
day, again connecting with the Main Line Mail. In later vears a second daily
train was run on the Western Line.
In the following table 1 give particulars of the various known date-stamps and
the earliest and latest known dates of use, with name of the owner in brackets,
Inscription Type Earliest Date Latest Date
(omitting Tas.)
T.M.L. Ry. No. 1 A
7.1.96 (Petterd)
2.9.11 (Petterd)
T.M.L: Ry. No. 2 A 12.6.00 (Dovey) 20.2.12 (Purves)
T.M.L. Ry. No. 3 A 24.2.00 (Purves) 19.4.11 (Purves)
TPO. No. 1 C 22.1.13 (Purves) 2.3.17 (Porter)
TPO: No. 2 ®) 22.10.12 (Porter) 12.8.14 (Purves)
T.P.O. No. 3 el 31.5.12 (Purves) 30.3.15 (Porter)
T.P.O. No. 4 B 2.8.03 (Petterd) 2.8.12 (Petterd)
T.P.O, No. 5 B 31.8.03 (Porter) 28.9.12 (Porter)
T.P.O. No. 6 C (without time) 3.1.09 (Dovey) 22.4.17 (Porter)
TRON No. 8 D 1.6.15 (Porter) 25.6.15 (Porter)
T.P.O. FE 28.9.24 (Porter) 28.9.24 (Porter)
WESTERN
LINE
It will be appreciated that a large part of the period covered by the above dates
is that during which the Tasmanian Pictorial series was on issue, i.e. December,
1899, until the appearance of Australian stamps at the beginning of 1913. T con-
sider it likely that Travelling Post Offices made their appearance on the Main
Line early in the nineties, which means that their date-stamps should be found
on the stamps, with effigy of Queen Victoria, current at that time. Further
examples will doubtless be reported, but large bulk lots of these stamps are hard
to come by and also I have reason to think that the date-stamp was often applied
to the cover, and the stamp itself obliterated with a dumb “killer.”
I think that we are on safe ground if we postulate that the three date-stamps
of Type “A” were used on the Main Line; they were probably all made at the
same time and withdrawn at the same time, being replaced by the corresponding
numbers of Type “C” on a date between March and May, 1912. According to
information kindly supplied by the Deputy-Director of Posts at Hobart, the local
records are not complete, but it is thought that the T.P.O. on the Main Line was
discontinued about 1912. Unless the last mentioned date-stamps of Type “C”
were transferred to another service, it would seem that the closure took place a few
vears later.
The reason why three date-stamps were used may have been that there were
three Travelling Postmasters on the route and that each, in turn, spent one night
travelling from Hobart to Launceston, the next on the tip from Launceston to
Hobart and the third night off duty.
TASMANIA’S T.P.O.s
As regards the Western Line, the evidence seems to
indicate that the first T.P.O. was inaugurated in the middle
of 1903. As it was a day service and the turn of duty was
over 12 hours from leaving Launceston until returning
there, possibly the Postmaster would only be on duty every
second day, which would account for there being two date-
stamps. Six years later, in 1909, a third datestamp, No. 6,
appears. From information kindly obtained from old postal
employees by Mrs. Reeves, Secretary of the Launceston Philatelic Society, in
latter years it was the practice for Travelling Postmasters to be stationed at both
Launceston and Burnie, and they swapped trains at the station where they
crossed and returned to their home station. At that period both the morning
and afternoon trains, in both directions, had T.P.O.s attached.
The T.P.Os on the Western Line were “axed” during the depression and
ceased to function after August 31st, 1932. Since then, Tasmania has been
T.P.O.less! Again I owe this information to the Deputy-Director of Posts for
Tasmania.
As will be seen from Figure “D”, the original T.P.O. No. 5 datestamp
suffered from Anno Domini and was replaced prior to 1915. It may well be
that this happened in other cases. I have already stated that I thought that the
number of Tasmanian stamps used in the T.P.O.s was under 1% of the total
usage. How many places of decimals one would have to go to before express-
ing the percentage of Australian stamps cancelled on the T.P.O.s of Tasmania,
I know not—any way, it is infinitesimal. This being so, the difficulty of obtain-
ing material to establish what happened in the ‘twenties of this century has, so
far, successfully shrouded the issue. 1 have a solitary example of a date-stamp,
used in 1924, with the motto “T.P.O. WESTERN LINE”—without indication
of “up” or “down” or a “gang” number. T can but hope that any reader who has
had the hardihood to fare thus far and who possesses any such material, will let
me have particulars, for the common weal.
There is one other possible T.P.O., which may prove nebulous. In February,
1892, the Government opened an isolated railway from the west coast port of
Strahan to the mining centre of Zechan, 30 miles away. In-
cidentally, in the list of post offices closed in 1893 appears
Strahan. A date-stamp. illustrated in Fig. “F”, is known used
between 3.2.98 (Porter) and March, 1901 (Purves). The
inscription is “STRAHAN NO. 2,” and I know of no other
instance of the use of “No.” followed by a numeral except on
the datestamps of the T.P.Oss. In December, 1900, the Emu “FB”
Bay Railway, which had existed from Burnie to Waratah since 1884, was prolonged
to Zeechan. It was early in 1901 that the Western Line was put into traffic be-
tween Ulverstone and Burnie, thus completing rail communication to Zeehan and
eliminating the necessity of sending the mails by sea to Strahan. Whoever the
postmaster was who applied this date-stamp, he was not in the same class for
markmanship as his brothers elsewhere, and Messrs. Dovey, Purves and 1 all had
to contribute bits before the whole inscription could be reconstructed.
In my endeavours to establish the existence or otherwise of this T.P.O., 1
asked the postmaster at Strahan if he could help me. After some lapse of time,
my letter came back with a note on it by a Mr. P. H. Smith, who said that he
was a clerk at Zeehan Railway Station 52 years ago and thinks he is the only
one of the old ones alive. Mr. Smith does not know of any Travelling Post Office
on the Strahan Line, but he does remember that the guard used to hand out the
letters to the people living along the line. Mr. Smith says he left Zeehan fifty
years ago, so that the Strahan postmaster must have gone to a lot of trouble to locate
him.
Six months ago I knew nothing about the T.P.O.s of Tasmania, and 1 realise
finality has not been reached, —but this is a start. I trust I have written in such
a way as to emphasise the help and co-operation 1 have received from many kind
folk, stamp-lovers and otherwise. 1 merely elected myself promoter and recorder
of a Study Circle, in pursuit of information on one tiny topic. Now I pass on the
details garnered, hoping that others will add thereto.