Before federation in 1901, Australia did not exist as a Commonwealth-recognised country.
It was a collection of entities we now call states, plus a few territories.
Our state, Victoria, has a special place in the history of Australian stamps, because Victorian colonists declined to use stamps printed in England and printed their own stamps, using what was to hand at the time.
This led to great variation in quality, plate production techniques, printing methods, and paper supplies.
This year, Australia marks 124 years since federation, though we build on a 60,000-year foundation of First Nations occupation and custodianship.
Following federation, Australian philately began on 2 January 1913 with the issue of a red one penny ‘Kangaroo and Map’ stamp with the word ‘Australia’.
It did not feature the British monarch’s head, as the Fisher Government of the time included many who strenuously opposed the inclusion of the monarch’s profile on Australian stamps, and had had hopes of an Australian Republic.
The new government had run a Stamp Design Competition, and the winning design was an entry by William Blamire Young (1862 – 1935), known as Blamire Young, who was born in England, died in Montrose, and is buried in the Lilydale Cemetery.
He taught mathematics, fine art and English literature, and first came to Australia in 1885 as a mathematics master.
He is best remembered now as a designer and water colourist.
Initially the design was ridiculed, with a tuft of grass re-interpreted as ‘rabbit ears poking out of a burrow’, and the offending tuft was removed from the final design.
Tasmania was added, as Young’s design had not included Tasmania.
One of the first acts of the Cook Government, sworn in on 14 June 1913, was to order a series of postage stamps designed with the profile of the British monarch, George V.
The Postmaster-General’s Department then kept both basic designs on issue – 38 years for the Kangaroo and Map design and 23 years for the George V.
From 1923 Blamire Young lived at ‘Mutamaro’, Montrose, on acreage at the corner of Swansea and Edinburgh Roads, diagonally opposite where the York On Lilydale is sited today.
Blamire Young died at his home on 14 January 1935.
In 1976, a stamp was issued in his honour for National Stamp Week.
