Opened in 1932 as a combined road / rail bridge, Sydney Harbour Bridge is one of the premier icons of Australia. It appears on numerous postage stamps, miniature sheets ( including sheet borders ), several items of postal stationery, a Parcel label and even a Commemorative Telegram.
Unlike many of the railway articles, this is an ongoing project, as new issues will, no doubt, continue to appear. I hope it is reasonably complete, but please let me know of anything omitted or when anything new appears.
Gutter Pairs: Many of the Australian stamps exist in gutter ( interpanneau ) pairs. I have included information on these only for the inaugural 1932 issue and later issues where the gutter is pictorial. I have only included one or two catalogue numbers ( SG ), where such detail might help to identify a stamp.
The scans in this article are immediately ABOVE the stamp, stationery or postmark descriptions. The listing has been produced in five sections:
Section 1 : Stamp Issues of Australia
Section 2 : Numerous worldwide m/s for Olympics 2000 with identical central label with the Bridge
Section 3 : Other world stamp issues
Section 4 : Postal Stationery and a Telegram
Section 5 : Postmarks relating to the Bridge.
A feature of the stamps of the Bridge is that only one of them actually shows a train - or even the tracks, and the one that does, 2004 50c, shows only a distant view of a train. So, to illustrate the railway properly, please find below a very pleasing portrait of a train leaving the Bridge, reproduced by kind permission of Maikha Ly of Australia. Please note that his photograph is copyright.
![SydneyBridge_thumb[2]_thumb_thumb](http://lh3.ggpht.com/-fr5CdbcXRGA/UkIRRed_07I/AAAAAAAAAzw/eobVyAvsbxM/s1600-h/SydneyBridge_thumb%25255B2%25255D_thumb_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg "SydneyBridge_thumb[2]_thumb_thumb")
.
K98 rolls off the bridge on a Hornsby bound service - 20-11-2002 - by Maikha Ly
Section 4 : Postal Stationery ( and a Telegram )
I should like to thank Keith Downing and Hans Eriksson for providing almost all of this part of the listing.
Note 1: Where an item is marked ' Postcard* ', it indicates that both the ' stamp ' and the view side of the card include the bridge.
Note 2: The Maximum Cards ( Maxicards ) listed have a ' Paid ' frank on the obverse side and a postage stamp on the reverse side, as issued by Australia Post. An illustration of a typical obverse ( frank ) side appears above. The reasons surrounding this double franking are not clear to me, but may perhaps involve postal regulations requiring adequate postage to be on the address side ? I do not know if these cards may be purchased mint, without adhesives ( i.e. stamps ) on the reverse side and, therefore, whether or not they may strictly be considered to be postal stationery.
[ . . ] 18c 1976 postcard* - S1 3.76 Aerial view with Bridge
[ . . ] 18c 1976 postcard* - S1 4.76 Bridge with opera house
[ . . ] 18c 1976 postcard* - S1 6.76 Bridge with tree framing view
[ . . ] 20c 1978 postcard* - 2-N1 Night view of Bridge with opera house
[ . . ] 20c 1978 postcard* - 2-N2 Aerial view of Bridge
[ . . ] 22c 1981 postcard* - 3-N1 Aerial view of Bridge
[ . . ] 22c 1981 postcard* - 3-N2 Night view of Sydney including Bridge
[ . . ] 22c 1981 postcard - 3-N5 three views, one including Bridge
[ . . ] 22c 1981 postcard - 3-N6 Opera House and Bridge
[ . . ] 27c 1982 Postcard - 4N3 Three views including the Bridge
[ . . ] 39c 20 Nov 1988 Club200 envelope for bi-centennial / Diabetes.
[ . . ] 60c 13 - Feb - 1989 Aerogramme - Child's drawing of Bridge
[ . . ] 'Paid' 28 - Aug - 92 maxicard - Building the Bridge
[ . . ] 'Paid' 4 Feb 1993 aerogramme - View of harbour; stamp shows aircraft's shadow over landscape
[ . . ] 'Paid' 7 - Apr - 93 envelope - Stamp shows Bridge ( at left )
[ . . ] - ditto - Later reprints with imprint under flap
[ . . ] 'Paid' 24 - Sept - 93 envelope - Olympic emblem added
[ . . ] 45c 28 -Sept -94 envelope - Sydney Zoo includes Bridge in design
[ . . ] 55c 1 -Oct -94 envelope - Moora Centenary cachet at left (stamp as 7-Apr-93)
[ . . ] 55c 28 -Dec -94 envelope - Jamboree of Far Horizons cachet at left(stamp as 7-Apr-93)
[ . . ] 55c ?-?-95 envelope - Catalina Club cachet at left(stamp as 7-Apr-93)
[ . . ] 55c ?-?-95 envelope - Sisters of St John of God cachet at left(stamp as 7-Apr-93)
[ . . ] 55c 8-Jun-95 large window envelope - stamp shows bridge.
[ . . ] - ditto - also later version with 4 conditions (1996)
[ . . ] 55c - reissued 1997 without window
[ . . ] 45c 4 - Sept - 95 envelope - Epilepsy Congress envelope; stamp shows Bridge outline
[ . . ] 'Paid' Nov 95 ' window ' envelope - Stamp shows Bridge
[ . . ] ' Paid ' 16 - Jan - 1996 : Maxicard $1 Building the Bridge
[ . . ] 'Paid' 16 - Jan - 1997 postcard : View of Bridge with train ( 90c Australia Day stamp on picture side )
[ . . ] 'Paid' 16 - Jan - 97 maxicard - 'The Balcony' picture shows Bridge
[ . . ] 'Paid' 16 - Jan - 98 maxicard - Building Bridge
[ . . ] 'Paid' 20 - Jun - 2000 maxicard - View of Bridge
[ . . ] 'Paid' 6 - May - 03 maxicard - View of art galley with Bridge in background
[ . . ] 'Paid' 2 - Mar - 04 maxicard - View of Bridge. Paid Frank on back. Scan shows attached adhesive on front.
[ . . ] ' Paid ' ? - ? - 200? Postcard : Bridge with imprinted 35c Lady Denman stamp illustration
[ . . ] 'Paid' 6 - Sept - 2004 Postcard - View of Bridge with 50c bridges IMPRINTED stamp illustration.
[ . . ] 'Paid' 1 - Jan - 2004 Postcard - View of Bridge with imprinted 45c Kangaroo & flag stamp illustration
[ . . ] ' Paid ' 21 - June - 2005 : B4 - sized envelope : Night view of bridge
1932 Commemorative Telegram.
[ . . ] Telegram
[ . . ] Its commemorative envelope
For a scan of this special telegram form (and its accompanying envelope), produced in 1932 to permit the public to send friends a souvenir message from the Bridge, please click the link below.
If you do not have Broadband, you may find that this is quite a large file to download!
Link to Sydney Harbour Bridge Telegram( opens in new tab )
If you liked this article, subscribe to the feed by clickingthe image below to keep informed about new contents of the blog:
Philately has been considered as an "auxiliary science of history" because it is based on the general principles of other sciences, which in turn contribute to enrich it. It acquires knowledge of the sciences, of the arts, of languages and opens an immense road of social relations through all countries. This science broadens broad horizons of culture, discovers artistic temperaments and offers the interest of the new and the unknown, while performing a positive therapeutic wor.
