Postage Stamps and Postal History of Australia - The "Roo" Stamp

The "Roo" Stamp

For most, Australian philately proper begins on 2 January 1913 with the issue of a red 1d (one penny) Kangaroo and Map, the design of which was adopted in part from the entry that won the Stamp Design Competition. This was the first definitive stamp with the sole nomenclature “Australia”.

The first definitive issue had fifteen stamps ranging in value from ½d (halfpenny) to £2 (two pounds). The Kangaroo and Map design was ordered by the Fisher Government Second Fisher Ministry which had in its ranks a number of pro-republicans who strenuously opposed the incorporation of the monarch's profile on Australian stamps. One of the first acts of the Cook Government Cook Ministry, sworn in on 14 June 1913, was to order a series of postage stamps designed with the profile of George V. On 8 December 1913 the first of these, an engraved 1d carmine-red, appeared. Soon after, typographed values of the design ranging from ½d (halfpenny) to 1/4d (one shilling and four pence) appeared. The Postmaster-General's Department then went on to keep both basic designs on issue – 38 years for the Kangaroo and Map design and 23 years for the George V.