new stamps

AUSTRALIA Around Australia flights – 100 Years This year marks the centenary of the first two flights, by seaplane and landplane, around mainland Australia. On 21 May, Australia Post honoured these feats of Australia’s intrepid early aviators, who pushed the boundaries of flight and helped galvanise national pride and identity, with the release of two special stamps. The introduction of air services also greatly improved communications, including air mail, over Australia’s vast continent. 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 ($1.50). The duo travelled anti-clockwise, via Sydney, Southport, Townsville and Thursday Island, across the Gulf of Carpentaria to Darwin, Broome, Carnarvon, Perth, Albany and…