Australia did not assume responsibility for the area now known as Australian Antarctic Territory until June, 1933.

However, individual Australians were associated with various Antarctic explorations over earlier years, and Australian postal history, so far as it relates to the Antarctic regions, may be said to have commenced some 48 years ago, in 1911. 

During that year Dr. (later Sir) Douglas Mawson of Adelaide had requested the Hon. J. Thomas, the Australian Postmaster-General, to provide a special postage stamp for the use of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition then being organized and of which Dr. Mawson was leader. 

Dr. Mawson had drawn attention to the stamps issued by New Zealand for the 1907 Shackleton Expedition and the 1910 Scott Expedition. Many years later, when asked regarding this proposal, Sir Douglas wrote:-

"Actually in 1911 I paid an artist under my supervision to design a special postage stamp for that Expedition, hoping that its sale would bring in money for the Expedition. The stamp was drawn 6 inches square, and was to be reduced to ordinary stamp size. It figured the spherical southern end of the Earth's globe, with an Emperor Penguin (in colour) standing on the South Pole. I was very pleased with the design. It was sent on to the Postmaster-General of that time (Fisher Government). In reply I was advised that it would be a costly matter to reproduce it. We did not even receive back our drawing". 

The fate of the drawing is unknown and no trace of it has been found in the scanty records now extant. The records do reveal, however, that on 17th October, 1911, Dr. Mawson reminded the Postmaster-General of his request for the special stamp for the use of the expedition. He wrote:-

"You have the design suggested by myself, and you were kind enough to state that you would go into the matter. Time is getting short and it is very important that you settle this matter". 

Late in October, 1911, after considering the request, the Department found itself unable to approve and in so advising Dr. Mawson stated, inter alia,

"the issue of special stamps of temporary validity is contrary to the policy and practice of this Department, which has refused several applications for the issue of such stamps. Moreover, were such stamps issued in the Commonwealth, they could not be used in the International Service, as the International Postal Convention expressly forbids their use." 

Dr. Mawson made one further effort and in a letter dated 3rd November, 1911, to the Postmaster-General wrote as follows:-

“….. it would have been a considerable advantage to the expedition which is altogether a national undertaking, and requires all the assistance that the various Commonwealth departments can afford it. The New Zealand government have without hesitation granted special stamps for Antarctic expeditions proceeding from their shores. The stamps thus issued were merely New Zealand penny stamps, surcharged with such lettering as you might have noticed on the example enclosed in my last letter to you. My suggestion would be for a penny Australian stamp surcharged "Antarctica". Such stamp would be valid only when appearing on letters posted in the Commonwealth. The concession actually means that the Commonwealth Postal Department posts expedition letters coming from the Antarctic regions free of cost. This means a total donation to the expedition of about 1,500 stamps. It would appear to me that perhaps you thought we were intending to sell the stamps thus issued for a price. This is certainly not so, any more than has been the case in Sir Ernest Shackleton's and Scott's expeditions. On those occasions many people took the opportunity of forwarding cheques to Sir Ernest Shackleton and Captain Scott when in the Antarctic regions, and requested an acknowledgment to be sent back, knowing that such would be stamped with the special stamp". 

However, the Department did not vary its decision and a special stamp was not provided. 

Although not contained in these particular records, Dr. Mawson stated in a letter written much later

:“…….. the Commonwealth did give us permission to have made suitable rubber stamps for cancelling Australian stamps to be used on envelopes posted back on our ship to Australia, actually for cancellation of stamps on ship's letters". 

The form of the impressions of the two rubber stamps which were made and utilized on the Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911 - 14 is shown by the accompanying illustrations. It will be noted that one carries the inscription "Posted at Macquarie Island" and the other "Posted in Antarctica". The initials "A.A.E." at the base represent the name of the Expedition.

The ship which carried the Expedition was the S.Y. "Aurora", which name is shown in  the two  cachets. The vessel initially departed from Hobart on 2nd December 1911.. There is no official foundation for the statement, published in some quarters, that the "Aurora" was registered as a post office and, as explained earlier, the cachets were provided by the Expedition and not by the Postmaster-General's Department. The Australian stamps which were taken on the S.Y. "Aurora" in 1911 were the contemporary 1d. pictorial stamps of Tasmania. In some accounts it is reported that a supply of the New Zealand "Victoria Land" stamps was also allotted. However, no such allocation was made by the New Zealand Post Office, although its inquiries disclosed that some such stamps were handed to the Australasian Antarctic Expedition by a representative of the Scott Expedition.

The vessel reached Macquarie Island on 12th December, 1911, where one party, including wireless technicians, was disembarked. The first mail from the ship and Macquarie Island was returned to Hobart on the "Toroall, a supply vessel which had carried coal. to Macquarie Island. Covers returned to Hobart at this time were there postmarked on 21st December, 1911.

The S.Y. "Aurora” left Macquarie Island on 25th December, 1911, and proceeded to the Antarctic. A land party was left at Commonwealth Bay near Adelie Land early in January, 1912, and a further party about 1,500 miles westwards in Queen Mary Land during the following month. The vessel left this second base on 21st February, 1912 and reached Hobart on 12th March, 1912. The return mail, which bore the "Posted in Antarctica" cachet, was postmarked at Hobart on the same day.

On 20th May, 1912, the S.Y. "Aurora" made another voyage to Macquarie Island and brought a further mail back to Hobart.

The vessel again left Hobart on 26th December, 1912, to relieve the parties at the two Antarctic bases. The eastern camp at Commonwealth Bay was reached on 12th January, 1913, and the western party. was picked up later in the same month. Hobart was reached on 15th March, 1913.

The vessel sailed again for the Antarctic late that year and reached Macquarie Island on 2nd December, 1913. It arrived at Commonwealth Bay on 12th December, 1913, and reached Adelaide after completion of the expedition on 26th February, 1914.

On each of the several return trips to Australia letters bearing one or other of the cachets earlier illustrated were lodged with the Post Office.

The 1929-31 Expedition.
Sir Douglas Mawson was the leader of the B.A.N.Z. Antarctic Expedition, jointly financed by Britain, Australia and New Zealand, which made two trips in the summers of 1929-30 and 1930-31.

 In writing of the cachet mark used on letters sent back from this Expedition, Sir Douglas Mawson stated, as a further paragraph to the earlier quotation referring to rubber stamps, "Similarly on our 1929-31 Expedition, a rubber stamp was used for cancellation of stamps on ship's letters". 

The Expedition carried a supply of Australian stamps and the cachet or rubber stamp impression took the form shown in the accompanying illustration, it being known on several different denominations of stamps. It will be noted that in the cachet the years "1930-31" only are shown and it is believed that the impression was used only during the second voyage, the Expedition vessel "Discovery" leaving Hobart on 22nd November, 1930 and returning on 20th March, 1931.

 Originally published in APO Phil;atelic Bulletins 36, 37 - 1959