Postcards have been delivering messages for 150 years
The first Australian postcard was issued in NSW in December 1875, six years after the world’s first was introduced in Austria. The earliest cards were blank, a cheaper way than a letter to send a short message to family and friends. They were a success – within three months almost 138,000 postcards had been issued in NSW.
Until the 1890s, colonial government departments were the only publishers of postcards in Australia, produced at the Government Printing Office in Sydney. Private printing of pictorial postcards was not permitted in NSW until 1898. The NSW Post Office soon introduced pictorial cards featuring picturesque scenes of built and natural landscapes, often with seasonal headings such as ‘With Christmas greetings’ or ‘With New Year greetings.’ Postage throughout Australia cost 1d and 1 1/2d for overseas – about half the cost of a letter.
Stanton Library holds around 1,500 postcards, many depicting local landmarks, such as North Shore bays, Luna Park and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, plus sports, celebrities and significant local events. After a tornado tore through the North Sydney and Willoughby districts in 1906, killing one person, Crows Nest photographers Falcon Studios produced a series of postcards recording the devastation. One of these poignantly depicts a Mr J Moss sitting amid the ruins of his house.
Picture postcard production boomed between 1900 and 1920. Travellers shared their journeys with others or bought cheap souvenirs for themselves, while it was still uncommon to own a camera. Postcards were popular with all social classes because there was no room for the complicated etiquette required in letter writing. They also provided near-immediate communication before the use of home telephones, with up to three deliveries a day in some areas. One postcard in Stanton’s collection reads: ‘Kindly meet me under the clock at Central Railway at 2.45pm,’ evidently posted earlier that day.
A cheerful North Sydney postcard, c1905
Most postcards circulating in Australia in the early 20th century were manufactured in Europe, particularly Germany and Britain. There were however some prominent Australian firms such as Rose Stereograph and W H Beattie. Many postcards were cheaply produced using low quality photography, but landscape artists and renowned photographers were also commissioned to design postcards which became affordable miniature artworks. Stanton holds several featuring the work of photographer Frank Hurley, including a view of Cammeray Suspension Bridge, considered an engineering wonder and tourist attraction when it opened in 1892.
The protracted World War gave postcard production a boost from 1914 to 1919, as sentimental messages were exchanged between troops on the Western front and their families in Australia. Symbols of home, such as wattle and gum leaves, often featured. Neutral Bay artist May Gibbs created a series of patriotic postcards featuring her well-loved gumnut babies. May’s humour, depicting the gumnuts surfing and playing cricket, ‘breathes a message redolent of home as no more serious mementos could’ (Sydney Sun, 11 March 1917). In return, soldiers sent home embroidered silk postcards from Europe, featuring delicate floral motifs.
Postcard collecting became popular from the early 1900s, with collectors advertising in newspapers for postcard exchanges. Card designs provide an insight into the culture of their day. One intriguing card in the library’s collection, addressed to Miss Hawkins of Chippendale in 1906, reads: ‘Hope you will be able to stand the shock of receiving this P.C. In haste E.T.’ We may never know the story behind this mysterious message, but the fact that something so ephemeral has endured for nearly 120 years speaks volumes.
Historical Services, North Sydney Council.
