Commencing March 1930, Matthew Aviation Company operated a flying boat service between Melbourne and Launceston. No mail was carried.

A contemporary report in the Melbourne Age (February 8th) gave an overview of the new service.

"Captain G C Matthews, the promoter of the proposed air service between Tasmania and the mainland, the initial flight of which will take place at the end of March, was a passenger by the Nairana yesterday. His visit was with the object of making preliminary arrangements for the service and particularly to inspect probable landing grounds. A flying boat, which is now on the way from England, is to be used in the service carrying three passengers or two with mails.

The amphibian will have an approximate speed of 75 miles and hour, and will do the trip to Launceston in about three hours. The company has arranged for a landing ground at Wilson's Promontory, where the machine, after leaving Melbourne will land, refuel and the weather reports will be perused to ascertain the conditions over Bass Strait. The Tasmanian coast will be reached about Bridport, and from there it was proposed to come to Launceston, but having inspected the proposed landing ground at Western Junction, which has been the subject of an inquiry by the Federal Public Works Committee, Captain Matthews said yesterday that he found it impossible at present to land a machine there.

The proposal, at present, is to run a weekly service, and the company has suggested to the Postmaster General that the plane should leave Melbourne on Thursday morning after the arrival of the English Mail, transport the Tasmanian portion by air to Launceston and Hobart and leave again on the Saturday morning, arriving in Melbourne in time to catch the air mail leaving at 4.30 pm on Saturday, thereby saving Hobart seven days as far as the English mail is concerned. The company has suggested that the plane carry 100 lbs of first class mail matter.

The question of mails is still under discussion by the Postmaster-General and no finality has been reached."

A Melbourne/ Launceston/ Hobart tri-weekly service by ANA was commenced on May 1 1931 though the first service terminated at Launceston due to poor weather and the mail carried to Hobart by car. The Avro X aircraft was used. The first complete flight was made on May 4. The return flight to Melbourne was made the same day. Due to its popularity, the service was increased to daily with effect from May 25 (Melbourne/ Tasmania) and May 26 (Tasmania/ Melbourne). It was suspended when ANA ceased scheduled operations.

From June 7 1932, the regular service from Launceston to Whitmark, Flinders Island by L McKenzie Johnstone was authorised to carry mail. In three months of regular services, the Desoutter monoplane made 56 trips carrying passenger, mail and freight. Tasmanian Aerial Services Ltd was formed by the Holyman shipping interests who absorbed the operation of Johnstone. The new airline acquired a DH83 Fox Moth and included King Island in its schedules.

The Hobart Mercury reported on August 23rd, 1933:
"Bringing a bag of mails for Flinders Island and another for Tasmania, the Hart Aircraft Co's monoplane Tasman arrived at Western Junction from Melbourne at 2.40 pm yesterday. The mailbag for Tasmania contained 311 letters including registered letters. There were high winds near the Victorian coast and the Tasmanian cost but otherwise the trip was fairly smooth.

Mr. A Barlow accompanied the pilot (Mr. J Turner) as assistant. He is to be engaged instead of Mr. R. Watt.

The Tasman will leave on return to Melbourne today, with mails which close at the Launceston Post Office at 8 am"

By late 1933, the Bass Strait services were operated by a total of three companies:

Melbourne/ Flinders Island (Whitemark)/ Launceston by Hart Aviation (first south-bound mails August 22, 1933, north-bound flight August 23). Initially a weekly service but shortly after increased to bi-weekly).

Melbourne/ Launceston weekly service conducted by Matthew Aviation in an amphibian service. First south-bound mail on August 25, first north-bound on August 26). This service was intended to have King Island as an intermediate stop but was not included as the airstrip was not ready. The King Island (Currie) service was included with effect from October 13 south- bound and next day north-bound.

Melbourne/ Flinders Is/ Launceston bi-weekly service conducted by Tasmanian Aerial Services Ltd in a land bi-plane commencing September 26 1932 south-bound and September 27 north-bound.

In September 1934, Tasmanian Aerial Services was renamed as Holyman Airways and a Melbourne/Launceston service introduced in direct competition with the Holyman steamers. At about that time, two new shareholders were brought into the company, Huddart Parker Ltd and the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand Ltd. The Bass Strait shipping companies were rapidly recognizing that the new air services would be having a significant impact on their traditional roles.

Holyman Airways introduced the DH84 that commenced a Melbourne/ Launceston service on September 4 1934. Regarded as the most modern commercial aircraft in Australia in its day, it was equipped with a radio-telephone.

Unfortunately, government regulations prevented aircraft, other than flying boats or sea-planes from flying over water for more than 50 miles. This forced the DH84 service from Launceston to Melbourne to be routed via Flinders Island rather than the shorter route via King Island.

On October 1, 1934, the thrice-weekly unsubsidised airmail service operating between Melbourne and Hobart via Launceston was replaced by a subsidised daily service (except Sunday) between Melbourne and Hobart via Launceston with thrice-weekly calls in both directions at Flinders and King Islands. With the introduction of this service, the unsubsidised Launceston/Flinders Island twice-weekly service was discontinued.

The Age reported the next day:
"The subsidised daily air mail and passenger service between Tasmania and Victoria was commenced yesterday by the successful tenderers, Holyman's Airways Pty Ltd. The new 12 passenger liner, Miss Hobart, left Western Junction aerodrome at 9 am and arrived at Melbourne at 11.30 am and the Miss Launceston made the flight in the opposite direction arriving at Western Junction at 12.15 pm.

The smaller plane, Miss Currie, was used to supply the connecting link between Launceston and Hobart, and she made one trip each way, conveying passengers and mails to and from the Western Junction aerodrome which at present is the terminus for the larger machines."

A link between Wynyard and Melbourne was established on January 1 1936 when the Holyman Airways flight between Hobart and Melbourne included Wynyard as a stopping point. The first call at Wynyard on the south-bound service was made the following day.

Holyman Airways was merged with Adelaide Airways P/L on July 1 1936 to form the second ANA - Australian National Airways Pty Ltd. Adelaide Airways had taken control of Western Australian Airways the previous month. The new company's services therefore extended across the continent servicing Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, as well as Tasmania. It was now the largest airline in Australia. New shareholders as a result of the merger included the Adelaide Steamship Company and the Orient Steamship Company.

In the same month, a DC2 was operated on the Bass Strait service. By the time of its retirement ten years later, it had covered 4,750,000 miles with 29,000 flying hours.

To improve mail services across Bass Strait, the Government approved from October 19, 1937 that all first-class mail matter could be carried between the mainland and Tasmania (including Flinders and King Islands) without surcharge hence the letter-rate was reduced to 2d per ounce. As would be expected, this had a dramatic effect on the amount of mail carried with the daily average total airmail load increasing from 35lb to over a ton.

This move also effectively commenced the phasing out of the carriage of first-class mail by sea.

Sea transport continued to used for second-class mail including parcels and packets and still attracted government subsidies though they were usually expressed in less direct ways.

Extracted from the Bass Strait Mails cdrom available from the stamps AU shop