Australia Post has recently released the second stamp issue in a four-year program celebrating the centenary of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE). Australia Post Philatelic Manager, Michael Zsolt commented that stamps associated with the AAE series will be issued every year until 2014.
The AAE left Hobart in December 1911 under the command of Douglas Mawson, reached Cape Denison in January 1912, and returned to Adelaide in February 1914. Mawson was knighted for his expedition achievements and is regarded as one of the greatest figures of Antarctic exploration.
“This extraordinary feat of exploration took immense courage, skill and determination, and Australia Post is delighted to commemorate the expedition’s centenary with the second in a four-year program of stamp issues,” Mr. Zsolt commented.
Mr. Zsolt explained that the first five-stamp strip in 2011 showed the key moments in the departure of the AAE from Hobart and the journey to the Antarctic. This second issue focuses on the arrival and activities of the Expedition undertaken in 1912.