THE POSTAL HISTORY OF ICAO

1953: Melbourne Regional air navigation meeting

The Second South-East Asia and Limited South Pacific (SEA/SOP) Regional Air Navigation (RAN) Meeting was held on the premises of the University (Union Building), Melbourne, Victoria, Australia from 13 January to 9 February 1953. During the meeting, a special post office was opened at the University of Melbourne in connection with the above ICAO conference and for the convenience of the Delegates to the meeting. It should be noted that ICAO had originally scheduled the meeting until Friday 13 February 1953; however, the meeting actually ended on Monday 9 February 1953.

The first meeting for the South Pacific Region was convened in Melbourne in February 1947 (see at the following link: Melbourne RAM Meeting – 1947). Several cancels were reutilized from this first meeting and slightly modified due to the new circumstances that prevailed in 1953, namely that ICAO had come into being in 1947.

The abbreviated name of the organization (ICAO), along with the abbreviated place (Melb.) and country (Aust.) of the meeting were stamped manually on the registration labels. As it can be noticed, the hand stamp used for the first meeting was reutilized for the second meeting; however, the letter “P” had been cut out and the positioning of “ICAO” on the stamp remained the same.

The conference hand cancel: I.C.A.O. – Melbourne, Aust. was reutilized from the first meeting, with the letter “P” in front of the text cut out. Note that there were 2 different cancels for this meeting.

Registered cover with blue provisional C6 registration label, mailed on the opening day of the Conference (13 January 1953). Front and back of covers.

First Day Cover addressed to Air Vice Marshal Alan Ferrier,

ICAO Assistant Secretary General for Air Navigation Bureau,

Chief Technical Advisor to the meeting.

First Day Cover providing information on the special post office

open during the meeting.

Back of the above cover, with the special conference hand stamp.

Cover mailed on the opening day of the Conference. National flag waving behind the contours of the country.

These first day covers relate to the issue of stamps, released on 11 February 1953, encouraging the production of food in the country. Two strips of this issue are affixed: 3D (WHEAT, in green) and 3½D (BEEF, in red).

First Day Cover providing information on the special post office

open during the meeting. 2d Brown scout stamp.

Second cancel for this meeting.

ICAO Melbourne Regional Meeting cover sent registered with relevant hand stamped registration label.1953 1½d blue King George V1 stamp on plain cover.

Registered cover postmarked on 4 February 1953.

Scarce cancel date of 11 February 1953 (two days after the actual closing day of the Conference). Franking with 1931 Kingsford Smith’s World Flights stamps (3 values).

His 1928 flights included the first trans-Pacific flight from the USA to Australia, the first trans-Tasman flight from Australia to New Zealand and the first flight in the reverse direction from New Zealand to Australia. In 1929, he flew from Australia to California via Great Britain which, together, with his 1928 trans-Pacific flight meant that he had flown round the world.

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