My research

Paul Edmund Strzelecki : In Australia 1839-43 | Stamps & Covers | In Australia (video) | W.B. Clarke | Eugene von Guerard print 1866 | William Macarthur 1856 | 1. Who was first? James Macarthur During 1856 a controversy arose in Australia as to the claim of "discovery" of the Gippsland area of Victoria. Of course, in the light of 2026 rationality, the term is a bit of a joke, as the Indigenous Australians had lived in the country for at least 110,000 years, so therefore any claim of "discovery" was tempered by this fact. Obviously it had already been done. In addition, various escaped convicts and others had entered lands outside of the settlements at Sydney and Melbourne during the immediate decades prior to government releasing the land for purchase or grant in the 1840s.  So who was the first non-Indigenous person to "discover" the Gippsland? We will probably never know. However, two individuals who made clai...

B2 bomber, Diego Garcia, 2006. Contents Stupid decision Chronology Alien base References ------------------- 1. "Stupid decision" Diego Garcia is a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. It is  also the most important United States military base outside of America. Why? Well, that's a secret ...... It is also the main island in the Chagos Archipelago , or Chagos Islands group, being seven atolls comprising sixty islands. This uninhabited, isolated area of the Indian Ocean was discovered by Portuguese explorers in 1512 and later claimed by the French in 1715. Since 1814 it has been claimed as the property of the United Kingdom, being as it was uninhabited at the time of discovery. Early in 2026 the United States realised that the United Kingdom was giving Diego Garcia to Mauritius, allowing Chagossians to return to the islands, and that  this would threaten the long-term stability of the military base and its immediate surrounds which include...

Australia: Airmail 1931 | Australia in Space 2024 | Commemorative PPEs | Rare Covers | Souvenir Covers 1970-1997 + Varieties | Souvenirs Covers 1997+ | World Youth Day 2008 | WWF 50 Years | Postage Paid Australia, 14 November 1934. 1. Postage Paid Australia The words Postage Paid Australia , or an earlier equivalent such as Paid at Sydney , have appeared on letters and parcels posted in Australia since the earliest days of centralised, official postal services in the second half of the nineteenth century, prior to the proclamation of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901 through federation of the various states. Postage Page Sydney, 10 December 1901. Location-specific postage paid machine postmark, 14 April 1965. In 2026 the words can be seen as postmarks, on blank envelopes, postcards, maxicards, aerogrammes, stamped envelopes, a variety of Australia Post covers, as gummed or sticky labels, in machine printed forms and as individual stam...