Australia Post New Marks Centennial of Flights Around the Continent

Fairey IIID seaplane A10-3 and a coastal route map

De Havilland D.H.50 G-AUAB aircraft and the inland route map

On May 21, 2024, Australia Post issued a set of two stamps depicting a seaplane and landplane and the flight paths of the first air service flights around mainland Australia in 1924. The blue-toned seaplane issue shows a Fairey IIID seaplane A10-3 and a coastal route map around the Australian continent. This issue marks the first flight by a seaplane which began on April 6th, 1924 and ended on 19 May, in a counter-clockwise route, via Sydney, Southport, Townsville, Thursday Island, across the Gulf of Carpentaria to Darwin, Broome, Carnarvon, Perth, Albany, and Port Lincoln and back to Victoria after 44 days and 13,600 kilometres (8,450 miles). The yellow-orange toned landplane issue shows a De Havilland D.H.50 G-AUAB aircraft and the inland route map about the Australian mainland. The flight commemorated by this issue took place three months after the first flight After departing Point Cook on August 7th, the trip took place in three stages: Melbourne to Darwin via Bourke, Longreach and Cloncurry; Darwin to Perth; and Perth back to Point Cook, on August 29th, after flying 12,324 kilometres (7,657 miles). Both stamps are 1.50 AUD and have a horizontal layout, available in either gummed or self-adhesive booklet. A gutter sheet consisting of 10 stamps, in an alternating pattern of five stamps in each row with sections from each of the routes and stylized planes what appears to be a commemorative cancel are depicted in the gutter of the sheet.

Flights Around Australia Gutter Sheet