Lighthouses: Sunday Stamps

Hello friends in the blogosphere! Today's theme on Viridian's Sunday Stamps is "civic architecture" and I have to admit, that got me quite excited (Bridges! Monuments! and Buildings, oh my!). So what to choose?

Lighthouses!

It has to be said that lighthouses are awesome. This first set of stamps are totally awesome because not only do they depict lighthouses - there is a map image of the location of the lighthouse in the stamp's background. And everyone knows I love a map on a stamp. Nicely designed stamps, right?

Lighthouses are such striking structures, there is something mesmerising about them (it could be the almost hypnotic effect of their light beams being thrown out and around, but I think it is more than that). They are built in precarious locations on rugged cliff-faces, with views of the wild ocean. Intrinsic to their existence is the reminder of the dangers of seafaring. So there is something poetic and romantic in the very nature of the lighthouse. Lighthouses are just incredible - they defy the elements.

This second set of stamps was released in 2006 and shows lighthouses built in different eras. Although the occupation of lighthouse-keeper has been made redundant by new technologies and solar power, not too much has changed in their design. Part of what is captivating about lighthouses is that the elegant towered structures represent, in a way, the incredible skill of the people who managed to engineer such a structure in what is usually a geographically hostile and isolated location! 

Two years ago my friends and I did a wonderful day hike into the lighthouse at Wilsons Promontory National Park. The lighthouse and its little peninsular are now officially run as a national park, and the old lighthouse keeper is employed as a park ranger, who takes tourists (like us) up the lighthouse, to hear about the operation of the lighthouse, and what his daily life as a lighthouse keeper was like in times past. The lighthouse and its associated cottages were well worth the six-hour walk in to see it.

Wilsons Prom Lighthouse

I like the thought of hiking to many more lighthouses in the future. Currently near the top of my list of "lighthouses to visit" is the one at Gabo Island, off the east coast of Victoria. If anyone has any suggestions of other lighthouses I should add to this list, I would love to hear them.

Hope you have enjoyed looking at and pondering lighthouses with me this week. To see how others chose to  explore the topic of civic architecture, check out the other blogs through the Sunday Stamps button below.

Sunday Stamps: Architecture, not Horseracing

Flicking through my collection this week searching for stamps featuring architecture, the theme of this weeks Sunday Stamps, I was slighty dismayed about the disproportionate number of horse-racing stamps Australia has issued over the years compared to stamps on architecture. Even for a sporting nation such as ours, I was surprised to see so many horse stamps. Although I should hardly be shocked, given I live in a city that has a public holiday for a horse race: on the First Tuesday in November for Melbourne Cup, aka 'the race that stops the nation'.

Anyhow, Australian stamps make up the heart and soul of my collection, and I so I desperately wanted to be able to showcase some Australian architecture for Sunday Stamps, but for a moment I thought Australia Post was going to let me down. Then I went back to Grandma Nellie's stamp collection and found these gems from the 70s.

The stamps were issued in October 1973. The Sydney Opera House is an obvious choice for an Australian Architecture stamp, and the blue 7c issue was the standard postal rate at that time. Melbourne is represented on the 40c stamp by Como House, which is a National Trust owned property, and is a gorgeous relic of a bygone era now surrounded by the bustling inner suburbs of the metropolis. We had a gorgeous 'high tea' there for my sister's hens a few years ago, an appropriately special place for a special occasion.

I don't really know anything about Buchanans in Townsville, or St. James Church in Sydney. What I do know is that these stamps are another example of the bold simplicity of 1970s Australian stamp design which really floats my boat.

When perusing my Stamps of Australia catalogue, which I purchased last week, I found that Australia has in fact celebrated architectural design in another set of stamps showcasing landmarks of Modern Australian Architecture in 2007.  That makes two architectural issues versus what I count as five horse-racing or horse-racing-related issues!

Image from Icograda

The sculptural form of the architecture is highlighted through the black and white photography featuring on the stamps. Like the block-cut prints of the 70s, this simplifies the elements of the buildings in order to really showcase the architecture. I like this 2007 set so much that I just bought it on ebay!

This is an entry for Viridian's Sunday Stamps.