The Sydney Harbour Bridge on Stamps, Postal Stationery and Postmarks: Postmarks relating to Sydney Harbour Bridge.

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.

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K98 rolls off the bridge on a Hornsby bound service - 20-11-2002 - by Maikha Ly

Section 5 : Postmarks relating to Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Once again, my thanks to Keith Downing for providing so much of the material for the listing below:

[ . . ] 19-Mar-1932 N.E.Pylon Sydney Harbour Bridge non pictorial handstamp

[ . . ] 19-Mar-1932 S.E.Pylon Sydney Harbour Bridge non pictorial handstamp

[ . . ] 19-Mar-1932 Sydney Harbour Bridge -1- non pictorial handstamp (as shown on the scan of the telegram)

[ . . ] 19-Mar-1932 Sydney Harbour Bridge N.S.W. non pictorial slogan postmark reads 'Posted on Bridge during opening celebrations'

[ . . ] 13-Mar-1978 Philatelic Sales Centre / Sydney NSW 2000 philatelic postmark shows bridge (postmark in long term use)

[ . . ] 19-Mar-1982 Sydney Harbour Bridge / 50th anniversary of opening ( cranes )

[ . . ] 27-Sept-1982 to 2-Oct-1982 Carlingford Shopping Square NSW 2118 / National Stamp Week Exhibition 1982 shows bearded postman with bridge

[ . . ] 28-Sept-1988 Sydney NSW 2000 / First Day of Issue shows tourists with bridge behind

[ . . ] (from) 12-July-1990 North Sydney NSW shows entrance to Luna Park with bridge in background - at least 2 designs used (postmark in long term use)

[ . . ] 2-Apr-1991 GPO Sydney NSW 2000 / First Day of Issue shows bridge

[ . . ] 25-Aug-1992 Sydney NSW 2000 / First Day of Issue shows stylised outline of bridge above water and tunnel

[ . . ] (from) 25-Aug-1992 Royal Exchange NSW 2000 : Bridge & Tunnel ( postmark in long term use )

[ . . ] 24-Sept-1993 Sydney NSW 2000 / First Day of Issue shows Opera House with part of bridge in background

End of Listing.

For those interested in the routes which run over the Harbour Bridge, there is an excellent rail map of the Sydney area ( with access via that page's sidebar to maps of other parts of the Australian rail network) if you click on this Australian webpage ( opens in new tab )

For those taking part in one of those quiz nights ( ! ), Sydney Harbour Bridge spans Jackson Port and was built by Freeman. The span of the arch is 1654 feet ( 504 m ) and the height of the road / rail deck above sea-level is 171 feet ( 52 m ). The deck is 98 feet ( 30 m ) wide with 4 railway tracks, a 6-lane highway and 2 footpaths. The towers, also known as pylons, are 505 feet ( 154 m ) high.

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