Australian Airmail Exhibition – October 1937
In September 1931 The Airmail Society of Australia was formed to “foster and stimulate the hobby of aerophilately”. By 1934 it had members in England, Nyasaland, Argentina, New Zealand, South Africa, Iraq, U.S.A. and all states of the Commonwealth of Australia. Its president was A.A. Rosemblum, and from 1933, its secretary was Phil Collas, both members of our society.
The number of members varied from year to year, but by 1937 when the exhibition was held, was about eighty-five. The patron of the society at that time was Sir Charles Kingsford Smith. To ensure the success of the exhibition, help was obtained from other Australian and overseas philatelic societies, operational air companies in Australia and the Australian Postmaster General’s Department (P.M.G.). Although a small exhibition by today’s standards and outside help was obtained, it was a remarkable effort by a small body of philatelists. It was the first exhibition of its type held in Australia.
In the forward to the exhibition catalogue, reference is made to it being just twenty-three years since the first air mail was carried between Sydney and Melbourne. The forward continues that the exhibition demonstrated the amazing advances in the carrying of mail by air within the space of two decades. At that time regular air services had been established between the main cities in Australia, and were available to many country towns, although frequency of service and transit times were poor by today’s standards. The really big news had been the establishment in 1934 of a scheduled air service between England and Australia. At the time of the exhibition this service had been improved by the introduction of flying boats and the transit time reduced to 12 days. After years of relying on shipping to carry the mail, all or part of the way, to England, these were exciting times for Australians.
This exhibition reflected their optimism for the future of air-mail transmission.
