| Date | Cover | Card | Vignette | Proof7 | Sheetlet | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1934 December 4 | R1 | N/A | R1b-Purple | R1c | R1a | ss Canonbar to Brisbane - 897 were done |
| 1934 December 4 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | R1a | Variation to above with larger selvedge (included in the 897) |
| 1935 August 11 | R2 | N/A | R2b-Red | R2c | R2a | Fraser Island to Maheno - 750 were done |
| 1935 August 11 | R3 | N/A | R3b-Green | R3c | R3a | Maheno to Fraser Island - same design as R2 - 750 were done |
| 1935 October 28 | R4a | R4 | R4d-Purple | R4e5 | R4c | Riverview to Moggill. A 13 registered covers exist. 400 + 90 cards were done |
| 1936 February 24 | R5a | R5 | R5d-Red | R5e5 | R5c | Riverview to Moggill. 13 registered covers exist. 400 + 100 cards were done |
| 1936 July 13 | R6 | N/A | R6b-Brown | R6c5 | R6a | Moggill to Riverview - 299 were done |
| 1936 September 24 | R7 | N/A | R7c-Green | R7d5 | R7b | Enoggera Rifle Range Firing. 50 registered covers exist. 350 were done |
| 1936 October 53 | R84 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Fishermen's Bend Firing - only 19 were done |
| 1937 March 14 | R9a | R9 | R9c-Blue | R9d5 | R9b | Mr Nebo Firing - Incorrectly marked 7 March - 400 + 100 cards were done. A different postmark exists. |
| 1937 March 23 | R10a | R10 | R10c-Brown | R10d | R10b | Enoggera Rifle Range Firing - 400 + 100 cards were done |
| 1937 May 10 | R11 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Coronation Rocket Firing. A cover with a postmark variation also exists. See also this one. - 500 were done. This variation was originally stamped 0158 and then changed to 0159. |
| 1964 March 263 | R124 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Bell Rocket Man Firing - only 6 were done |
| 1964 March 283 | R134 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Bell Rocket Man Firing - only 19 were done |
| 1975 March 28 | R14 | R14a | N/A | N/A | N/A | Bell Park Firing - 163 + 10 cards were done |
| 1992 October 22 | R15 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | AUSROC II Firing. 200 covers were placed in the rocket (100 in the main body and 100 in the nose cone) and signed by various members of the team on the back. The rocket malfunctioned and the launch abandoned. A number of covers with a different cachet were left as unflown. |
| 1995 May 263 | R162 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | AUSROC II-2 Firing. 100 covers were launched and 100 were retained on the ground. The parachute failed and the covers were badly damaged. 67 were reconstructed in various states of repair and presented with an unflown cover (incorrectly marked) and two photographs in a dual side plastic sheet. |
| 2000 July 31 | (17?) | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 150 covers were launched on Zuni rockets. They were numbered on the back. |
| 2000 October 3 | (18?) | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 100 covers were launched on the Kistler Spacer Endevour Prize launch by the Australian Space Research Institute Ltd. (ASRT). They were numbered on the back. |
| 2002 October 29 | (19?)6 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 50 covers were launched on two Zuni rockets, Z50 & Z51. The parachute failed and 50 compressed covers were recovered. A limited number of 15 that were in good condition and were signed by the range Safety & Recovery Manager, Bruce Henderson. These were numbered on the back. Another batch of covers were not returned for the second postmark. |
| Item | Designation | Description |
| Flimsy | R4f | Blue facsimile of 'Telegraph' front page - Flown in the covers |
| Flimsy | R5f | Red on yellow facsimile of 'Telegraph' front page - Flown in the covers |
| Cover | None | 25th anniversary of 1st rocket mail Canonbar to Brisbane - postmarked 4 Dec 1959 at Brisbane |
| Document |
R03 & RZ2 |
Original document from Australian Rocket Society detailing the launch of R03 and RZ2 rockets during March 1937 |
| Document | Rocket (R16) | Section of the Journal of the Scout and Guide Stamp Society of Australia from April 1975 detailing the launch of their rockets |
Notes:
1) All R numbers refer to The Australian Air Mail Catalogue by Nelson Eustis
2) The top cover was not flown. It is just an example of the covers that were flown. 200 covers were produced with 100 placed in the rocket and 100 left on the ground. The rocket failed to reach the correct height and thus when it returned to Earth it's parachute failed to open and it hit the ground very hard. The 100 covers were tawn apart, compressed and generally badly damaged. Jim Hill was able to put together 67 copies of greatly varying quality. These were presented in a double sided plastic sheet with an unflown example, unfortunately not correctly marked, and two photos.
3) Covers R8, R12, R13 & R16 have not been seen for many years.
4) Thanks to Charles Bromser
5) Seen on eBay
6) These covers were initally incorrectly postmarked on 8 October 2002. They were then returned to the Woomera post office and postmark on the correct date, 29 October 2002. Note that a small number of the incorrectly postmarked covers were not returned for a second postmark. They are not numbered. See this example.
7) An unknown but very small number of the black proofs were produced. There were 5 different designs (R2c & R3c as well as R4e & R5e are the same). The Vignettes only differ in colour but all proofs are black. After the experiments it is reported that the Queensland group decided to deface the plates to stop anyone from creating more vignettes and proofs. However, someone got hold of the defaced plates and produced an unknown number of defaced 'proofs'! These should be considered less valuable than the originals and, in fact, are not proofs. All except the R2c/R3c are defaced.
This page © Dr Ross J Smith
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Last modified on 8 October 2023
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