The mails and stamps of Ross Dependency: up until the closure of the Scott Base Post Office in 1987

• Main Author: Fortune, David
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: University of Canterbury 2006
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Victoria Land; Australian Antarctic Territory; New Zealand; Scott Base; Christchurch; Ross Dependency; Royds; Cape Royds; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10092/13965

The Ross Dependency is a very interesting philatelic area as it has: • probably the area of the first mails posted in the Antarctic ? • the home of the first Antarctic Post Office (Cape Royds). • the region with the first Antarctic stamps, issued by New Zealand in 1908 (New Zealand stamp overprinted “King Edward V Land”) and 1911 (New Zealand overprinted “Victoria Land”). • the first stamps to be used on the continent. [The next stamp to be used in the Antarctic was a stamp issued by USA in 1933 (25 years after the first NZ issue) for Byrd’s expedition. This was also available in continental USA and able to be used for postage in USA as well as in the Antarctic. Following on 21-22 years later were the next Antarctic issues - by New Zealand (Ross Dependency) and Australia (Australian Antarctic Territory) in 1957, and Falkland Island Dependencies (Trans Antarctic Expedition) in 1956. The first other country to issue stamps with an Antarctic theme was the Falkland Islands in 1929 (whales and penguins). 1 ] • stamps issued in 1957 for Ross Dependency celebrating the Trans Antarctic Expedition. • a region with continuing issues of stamps until present the day. • at present a Scott Base postmark which is used only in Christchurch.