1984 Cocos (Keeling) Islands Barrel Mail

ARCHIVAL SNAPSHOTS > From the National Philatelic Collection

1984 7th Anniversary Cocos (Keeling) Islands Barrel Mail Issued April 20 1984

Stamp technical details at end of snapshot

The snapshot of the1984 Cocos (Keeling) Islands barrel mail issue outlines the background to the story of the stamp, reproduces the original watercolours for the stamps, minisheet and stamp products and gives a brief biography of the stamp designer.

ARCHIVAL SNAPSHOTS > From the National Philatelic Collection

Story of the stamp issue The Cocos barrel mail service was instituted in 1909 by Captain W. Broun of the P & O Liner Morea bound for Australia from Europe via Colombo. Captain Broun knew of the cable and wireless station in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands group and of the isolated existence of the station personnel. He set a course which would take the Morea close to Direction Islands, the site of the cable and wireless station. He arranged for a barrel, containing mail and other packages for the men, to be dropped into the sea with a flag marker. The station men recovered the barrel from the sea. Other ship’s captains followed Captain Broun’s example and so the Cocos barrel service began. It continued until the mid-1950s.

The Cocos barrel story has all the elements of a romantic adventure novel with many accounts of human interest, personal daring and accomplishment. Aside from the adventurous deeds of the barrel recovery teams and the fellowship enjoyed by travellers in the Indian Ocean region, the Cocos barrel mail service is of major interest as a classic instance of the way in which the international mails network was extended to the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.

ARCHIVAL SNAPSHOTS > From the National Philatelic Collection

Ray Honisett 1931 original watercolour for 35c stamp

Wireless and telegram operators of Cocos (Keeling) Islands retrieving mail and packages from mail barrel.

Ray Honisett 1931 original watercolour for 55c stamp

Cocos (Keeling) Island sailing boats heading towards flares fired by ocean liners after dropping barrel mail into the ocean.

ARCHIVAL SNAPSHOTS > From the National Philatelic Collection

Ray Honisett 1931 -

Watercolour original for $1 stamp in centre of mini-sheet (see below) showing small yachts collecting the mail barrel dropped near an official marker buoy and ocean liner departing in the distance.

The mini sheet illustrates the various ships which travelled the Indian Ocean passage delivering barrel and tin can mails to Cocos (Keeling) Islands.

ARCHIVAL SNAPSHOTS > From the National Philatelic Collection Souvenir Cover

Souvenir Cover

First day cover cancelled at WAPEX 1984, Perth, W.A. The First Day Cover was carried by ship from Fremantle, Western Australia, and dropped in tin cans into the Indian Ocean off the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. These covers joined the official barrel mail out of the islands to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the tin can/barrel mail Service. The cancels on the front and verso of the cover are not official but were produced and stamped on the official covers by WAPEX 84 Perth, W.A. for Cocos (Keeling) collectors.

ARCHIVAL SNAPSHOTS > From the National Philatelic Collection

Stamp Pack

Stamp technical details: Designer Sheet content Printed by Process

Ray Honisett 50 stamps (2 panes of 25 stamps) Cambec Press, Australia Photo-lithography

ARCHIVAL SNAPSHOTS > From the National Philatelic Collection

Artist’s Biography Ray Honisett 1931 – Ray Honisett is a significant Australian stamp designer. The creator of forty Australian stamps, he is a winner of the coveted International Philatelic Gold Medal and is a Fellow of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. A native Australian, Honisett moved to England as a young man but returned to Australia in 1962.