Australia's ocean gardens on stamps

 

Date of Issue : 20 August 2013

Australia Post has  featured two of the most stunning coral reefs in the world - the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland and Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia - in a new stamp issue. The two domestic base-rate (60c) stamps show underwater images and the two large letter-rate ($1.20) stamps show aerial images of the two reefs. 

Ningaloo Reef is just off the coast of Western Australia's Cape Range peninsula, and about 1055 kilometres north of Perth. This World Heritage-listed region is home to the largest fringing coral reef in Australia. Whale sharks are regular visitors arriving in April for the coral-spawning season.

The Great Barrier Reef runs for more than 2000 kilometres along the Queensland coast and is the world's largest coral reef system. It has almost 200 varieties of hard coral and more than 100 types of soft coral. Species found on the reef include minke whales, barracuda, batfish, whitetip reef sharks and blue-stripe snapper.

The associated products available are a miniature sheet, first day cover, stamp pack, maxicard set of four, sheetlet of five x 60c self-adhesive stamps and a booklet of 20 x 60c self-adhesive stamps.

: Australia Post