The Travelling Post Offices (T. P. O.s) Of The Colonies And States Of Australia.

No FDS, it's an A.

Peck's catalogue numbering system does my head in

These are Eng. Mail T.P.O. South Australia postmarks.

Recorded used from 1887 until 1917, I haven't seen many of these South Australia English Mail Travelling Post Office cancellations - any others out there amongst our members' collections?

I believe I can hunt up an English Mail or two. Here is another TPO for today:



A pair of Queensland with a TPO No 1 NC UP cancel dated 17 August 1912

Here's a nice taxed late fee cover with a NSW TPO 1 SOUTH cancel

Here are some items from my Victorian TPO collection.

'UP' markings were 'Up to Melbourne'. Down markings, 'Down from Melbourne'. The former are generally more plentiful.

TPO11 was used on the Ballarat line. Prior to 1890 it was only used between Ballarat and Stawell. After 1890 it was mostly used between Malbourne and Ballarat, sometimes as far as Ararat.

There are four 'UP' markers and three 'DOWN' markers.

TPO11-Up1 is the first of the TPO11 cancels. The earliest date recorded on a stamp is 17 December, 1885, the only date on cover 18 December, 1885. My cover is the second with this date but it is not the cover recorded in the census by Molnar and Waugh.







TPO11-Dn2 was the second 'down' marker, documented range of use is from 10 July, 1907 (on cover), again not in the census by Molnar and Waugh) to 9 January, 1915 (on a stamp, not a cover).

My cover left Sydney on 15 September, 1911 and travelled overnight on the train to Melbourne. It then travelled by train to Ballarat on 16 September where the postal process was completed. The final destination was near Hamilton, not on the rail network at the time.

My cover is only the third recorded.

Is my Queensland pair, above, (A pair of Queensland with a TPO No 1 NC UP cancel dated 17 August 1912) a North Coast cancel? Did they drop the "R" from NCR at some point?

Thanks.

Looking at my copy of 'Queensland Postal History', H.M. Campbell, Royal Philatelic Society of Victoria, Melbourne 1990 pp218-9, there were three types of North Coast Railway TPO cancels, yours being the second type.

Within this there were 6 numbers, TPO 1 through 6.

Nos 1, 2, 5 and 6 read 'TPO No 1 NC'

Nos 3 and 4 read 'TPO No 3 NCR'

Thanks!

This is a scarce and unusual Victorian TPO cancel, used on the line from Dandenong through Leongatha to Port Albert. Around 20 examples are known, all dated in early 1906. During this period, no dated examples of the usual TPO 2 or TPO 7 were identified by Molnar and Waugh.

No examples on cover of this GT STHN UP TRAIN cancel are known and full strikes have not been seen. The 30mm diameter is larger than the normal stamp.

This is the large octagon design for MG3 (only MG1, MG2, MG3 and MG4 appeared in this type) from the 1860s. Molnar and Waugh stated five covers known and a single stamp identified by Purves. This stamp was a cheap purchase on Delcampe a couple of years ago.

Molnar and Waugh had a date range of 18 February, 1868 to 8 August, 1873. This stamp is earlier by almost two years.

64idgaf, Thank you for sharing those covers and accompanying information.

A couple of things to clarify:
Your first Victoria TPO 11

This would be 'early date on cover' rather than 'only date on cover'. Les Molnar has that postmark as "very common on both stamps and covers".

Your TPO 3 D1 large octagon


On his Stamps of Victoria website, Les Molnar had the following relevant information:
"The earliest recorded date is January 16, 1866 and the latest recorded date is July 3, 1872."

Here is another Victorian TPO cover to add to the thread:

I misread the info. The use of this cancel is broken into two periods, Ballarat to Stawell up to 1890 and Melbourne to Ballarat 1891 to 1908.

My cover is from the first period and Molnar states "only one cover is recorded". My cover is the same date as the one in his census but it is not the one in the census.

That cover is #47 in Molnar and Waugh's census.

Is that site still up?