Australia 2014 – Aurora australis
In August 2014, a year in which auroral activity reached one of its periodic
peaks, Australia Post released a set of four stamps titled Southern Lights,
featuring photographs taken by local photographers in Tasmania. Tasmania is the
most southerly part of Australia and hence the closest to the auroral zone
around the south magnetic pole.
The quartet of stamps came in two pairs: one pair with face values of 70c each
and the other of $1.40 value each. The image on the 70c stamp at the left was
taken by James Garlick in July 2012 at Goats Bluff on the South Arm Peninsula, and the one on the
right by Ron Verdouw in June 2013 at Kingston Beach, 10km south of Hobart.
The $1.40 stamps feature images by Luke O’Brien (March 2013 at Coles Bay on the Freycinet Peninsula) and Ron Verdouw again (July
2012 at Margate, on the shores of North West Bay). Curved ‘star trails’ on each stamp are not part of the original photographs; they are artificial and
were added by the designer, Lynda Warner of Hobart.
The four stamps were also issued in tête-bêche (head-to-head) arrangement as part of a mini-sheet (below) with a background
photograph of the lights seen from Howden, on North West Bay, taken by Jonathan Esling in September 2012.
This was a well-designed and attractive set promoting the work of Tasmanian
aurora hunters.
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