Parliament House in Canberra – First commemorative stamp of Australia

Parliament House in Canberra – First commemorative stamp of Australia

The idea for a national capital (and National Parliament House) for Australia was central to the Federation debates of the 1890s. If the States were to merge and become one nation it would be necessary to choose a site for the seat of national government. The two largest states (New South Wales and Victoria) wanted the national capital to be in their respective capital cites and, because agreement could not be reached, a compromise was achieved. The new national capital was to be situated somewhere between Melbourne and Sydney.

The first ten years of Federation saw intense competition between various towns and districts in southern New South Wales as they vied for the honour of being selected as the site for the new capital. The established towns of Bombala, Tumut, Yass, Dalgety and Albury were all considered as potential sites. The Parliament itself could not agree on a site, with the House of Representatives voting for Tumut and the Senate opting for Bombala.

By 1904, after a delegation of federal politicians visited the area, the Parliament selected Dalgety as the site for the new capital. However, the New South Wales Government had not been consulted and vetoed the decision. Finally, in September 1908, a majority of federal politicians agreed to the Yass-Canberra area.

One of the more interesting reasons the Canberra site was chosen was given by former Deputy Prime Minister in the Bruce government, Sir Earle Page. Writing in the early 1960s, Page recalled how some of the older members of parliament, engaged in selecting a suitable site, had told him that Canberra was chosen after ‘a cavalcade of members travelling between Yass and Canberra … stopped at a wayside village where their hearts were torn by the sight of an ancient man weeping bitterly … they alighted and asked the old man why he wept.

He replied that his father had just given him a sound hiding. ‘But’, they replied, ‘surely your father cannot still be alive; you yourself must have passed the age of eighty. Why have you been beaten?’ To which he answered, ‘For throwing stones at my grandfather’. So the members of parliament made up their minds. If men could live to such a vigorous old age in this environment then surely politicians could survive longer!

By 1927 the new Parliament House had been completed, and the time had come to move federal government to its new centre of operations in Canberra.

The first official announcement of the stamp appeared in the press of June 16 1926. To commemorate the official opening of the Federal parliament at Canberra next year, and the permanent transfer of the seat of Government to the Federal Capital, the Postmaster general (Mr Gibson) has decided to issue a new postage stamp.

Mr Gibson said yesterday that the stamp would have great historical value. He had practically completed arrangements for obtaining from skilled artists throughout the world competitive designs for tan engraved stamp which must contain features characteristic of Australia.

Premiums would be paid to the first and second designs in order of merit, and the designs would be judged by a board which would be appointed for the purpose. In all, 354 entries were received and the first award went to Mr. R.A. Harrison – a son of the former printer T.S. Harrison who held the position of engraver and technical adviser in the Note and Stamp Printing Office of Melbourne. Rosenblum in his Handbook for Philatelists (1966 edition) makes the following observations.

“Careful arrangements were made to ensure the simultaneous issue of these stamps at every Australian post office on May 9, 1927 and it has been established that such simultaneous issue actually took place.

The die was engraved by Waterlow and Sons, London, the size of the subject being 1¼ inches by 1 inch. The colour selected for the stamps, although officially described as carmine red, was in reality brownish red with some tendency towards lake.

The paper used was a uniform soft white wove of fair quality, unwatermarked and slightly porous. The sheets were machine gummed after printing with a thin white mucilage of gum Arabic.” Punctured OS stamps were distributed to Members of Parliament. The quantity punctured was 18,800.

Technical details of the 1½d Canberra stamp

Printer: Printed by flat-bed recess at Note Printing Branch, Melbourne.
Date of Issue: 9 May 1927.
Plates Used: Twelve steel plates, each of 80 impressions (8 horizontal rows of 10). Issued to post offices in sheets of 80.
Paper: Unwatermarked.
Perforation: 11 (single-line).
Usage: letter rate within Australia and the British Empire.
Quantity Printed: 32,213,680, plus 1,155,200 in booklets.