The XIth International Grassland Congress to be held in Surfers Paradise, Qld., from 13th to 23rd April, 1970, will be marked by a 5c stamp which will appear on 13th April, 1970, for sale at post offices for about one week.
The stamp was designed by Mr. Robert Ingpen, of Melbourne, and has at its central motif the lucerne plant Townsville Stylo (Stylosanthes humilus) which has been developed by Australian scientists of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation esepcially for tropical regions, where natural grasses are often deficient in nutritional elements. Cattle in northern Australia are usually fed a combination of Townsville stylo and other grasses, for best results, and the design therefore shows a native speargrass, and a bull to emphasise the importance of tropical pastures to the cattle industry. The green background and the graduated yellow circle suggest tropical growth and the sun; the animal is in red.
Stamp size, excluding perforations, is 34.5 mm x 22 mm, and it is being printed in sheets of 100, on helecon paper, by photogravure at the Note Printing Branch, Reserve Bank of Australia, Melbourne.
Details
- Date of Issue: 13 April 1970
- Withdrawn Date: 13 March 1971
- Invalidated:
- Designer: Robert Ingpen, Melbourne
- Printer: Note Printing Branch, Reserve Bank of Australia, Melbourne
- Process: Photogravure
- Cylinders: Green – Red – Yellow
- Paper: Wiggins Teape – chalk coated with Helecon
- Watermark: None
- Perf: 13.25 x 13.5 (comb)
- Sheet: Printed in two panes of 50 stamps (R5 x 10) divided by horizontal gutter.
- Quantity: 5,790,000
Sheet Numbers
