Australia - Can Anyone Identify These Placenames?

Nice one, rod222.

I had the postmaster stamp my autograph book. I did this in many of the Darling Downs towns I visited with my father that year. Sold the relevant pages to a Canadian collector on ebay last year, but still have scans somewhere.

Do you know what the pencil cancels were for, rod?

No I do not JJ,
at first glance, possibly just a child's scribble.
It doesn't appear to be a fiscal cancel, and I doubt
if it was, it would be in pencil, but who knows?

Six more I haven't been able to figure out:





For me the most intriguing is the fifth one, which seems to read
'---STED ON IR-'

Here's a close up:



All assistance greatly appreciated!

Glenorie, Nyngan, ? , Narromine, Posted on Train (I think the "T" looks like an "I") , Cohuna

Is the 4th Narromine
5th Posted on Train ?

Woops I was to slow

Third might be Mullumbimby

I think you're right

Thanks for the help, everyone!

It really wasn't posted on the train,
just cancelled on the Train.

That must be a unique kind of cancel, rod222.

Know of any other countries with cancels conveying the same information>

The Indian Railway Mail Service was vast, with an endless variety of railway-specific cancellations. This early Jind State cover





has a couple (L.3-OT etc and TRAIN LATE) I've sent Rod a couple, although somewhat less exotic and desirable than this one.

Thanks for the scans, tonymacg.

BTW I am under the impression that you can read Japanese. If I'm correct, could you possibly tell me what the cancel on this Japanese stamp says?

I'm just curious!

Happy to help, Jimjamtwo.

The bottom half reads 'Harima Post & Telegraph Office Himeji'. The top half gives the date 24 December 1896. These places are in Hyogo Prefecture, around the cost from Kobe. These days, Harima falls under the larger industrial town of Kakogawa, but back then, I guess it fell under Himeji. (Himeji is a very old town, with a famous castle.) (I believe Harima gave one half of that typist's nightmare Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Ltd, the prominent Japanese engineering firm - usually known, not surprisingly, as IHI.)

Thanks for your trouble, tony!

So it's just place and date? It seems to be a lot of characters for such a small amount of information. I thought there might have been a message of some kind.

Just the place and date, I'm afraid.

Actually, Japanese can be much more concise than the English. Out of curiosity, I typed out the bottom half (place) part of the CDS in Japanese and English, both in 12 point (Mincho for the Japanese and Arial for the English):



So the Japanese-speaker might reasonably ask why the English was so long