History

History of the Brisbane General Post Office

This history of the Brisbane General Post Office is extracted from The Postal History of New South Wales 1788-1901 (pp. 174-7) edited by John White and published by the Philatelic Association of New South Wales in 1988

QUEENSLAND THE MORETON BAY DISTRICT

The Moreton Bay District was first settled in September 1824 when NSW Surveyor General John Oxley together with Lieut Millar and a detachment of soldiers and convicts landed at Redcliffe Point and established a penal settlement. This site was found to be unsuitable so was moved in February 1825 to a site on the Brisbane River near where the City of Brisbane now stands. In a Proclamation published in the Sydney Gazette on 16 August 1826, Governor Darling named Moreton Bay as a place "to which the several Offenders convicted in New South Wales, and being under Sentence or Order of Transportation, shall be sent or transported".

Normally, separate Post Offices were not established at penal settlements so letters were usually handled by the Commandant's clerk who acted as Postmaster. In 1830 William Whyte was appointed Commandant's clerk at Moreton Bay and he remained in the position until 1842. The 1832 GPO Directory lists a Post Office at Moreton Bay but the 1845 Post Office Report records the date of establishment as 1 August 1834. In a "Return of the Post Office Department" for the period 1840-1841, Moreton Bay is listed as a new Post Office from 1 January 1841 and William Whyte was appointed Postmaster from that date. On 26 September 1840 the Colonial Secretary approved the purchase of "Stamps" for this Post Office but as yet handstamps inscribed "Moreton Bay" have not been seen. At least as early as April 1843 the name "Brisbane" was adopted for postal purposes but no correspondence relative to the change of name has been located.

On 4 May 1842 the Moreton Bay district was opened to free settlement.

Separation of Queensland from New South Wales

There is some controversy amongst collectors as to just when Queensland was legally separated from NSW. Some state it was 1 December 1859, others say it was 10 December 1859, whilst a third group claims it was 26 January 1860. Let us trace the saga in the following list of date lines

13 May 1859 (In London) Letters Patent issued under Order-in-Council creating the Colony of Queensland and appointing Sir G F Bowen first Governor.

6 June 1859 (In London) A second Order made empowering the Governor to make laws and provide for the administration of justice within the territory.

1 December 1859 Issue of NSW Government Gazette EXTRAORDINARY announcing a Proclamation dated 1 December 1859 by Sir William Denison, the NSW Governor stating

1. All the legal formalities required to set up a separate Colony with its own independent system of Government;
2. the delineation of the boundaries separating Queensland from NSW:
3. and, concluded with the announcement, very pertinent to the point under discussion, that "these presents shall take effect so soon as the same shall be received and published in the said Colonies".

1 December 1859 As from this date the Colony of Queensland took over the revenue from the postal services and assumed responsibility for all expenses. (Ref: Queensland PMG First Annual Report; NSW PMG Annual Report for 1859.)

5 December 1859 The following notice appeared in the NSW Government Gazette

Subjoined to this was a table setting out the Intercolonial rates.

10 December 1859 Governor Sir George F Bowen landed at Brisbane and immediately proceeded to read the Proclamation establishing Queensland as a Colony separate from that of NSW.

Now we come to the crux of the matter.

15 December 1859 The following announcement appeared in the NSW Government Gazette

From the above sequence of events the critical date for postal history students is 15 December 1859, the day on which it was announced from the NSW Treasury that it now cost 6d, the Intercolonial rate, to send a letter to Queensland instead of the Inland rate of 2d as previously.

Early in 1860 the status of the Brisbane Post Office was elevated to that of GPO, as headquarters of the Queensland postal service.

NSW adhesive stamps continued to be used in the new Colony, and these were purchased at cost of printing from NSW until 1 November 1860, when supplies of Queensland adhesive stamps arrived from London.

The "NSW" date-stamps and numerals also continued in use, most being replaced by "Queensland" types in 1861.