| Time | Audio | Visual |
| 0:00 | Music played mostly on fiddlers starts in the background. | A young girl dressed in clothes from the 1800's is standing in the middle of a dirt road with an old two-story building made entirely of wood. The scene is reminiscent of an old western movie set. The building behind the girl has a Telegraph sign on it. A boy, taller than the girl, and dressed in clothes also of the time, walks towards the girl. |
| 0:01 | Australians have been collecting stamps for over 150 years, | |
| 0:02 | The girl opens up her book of stamps to show the boy | |
| 0:03 | a couple of decades after stamps were first issued in 1840. | Zoom in to the two children as the girl points to something in the open book. She leafs through a few more pages of the book. |
| 0:08 | Cut to the two children now sitting at a table inside an old house. They are each looking through their own books of stamps. The girl again points to one particular stamp and the boy looks over at it. | |
| 0:09 | Kids would collect stamps as a hobby, asking their family and friends to save stamps from letters and envelopes they received. | |
| 0:17 | News about valuable stamps, | Video now shows the words "Valuable Stamps" appearing letter by letter on a white page |
| 0:20 | like the famous American stamp called the US Inverted Jenny from 1918, | Camera zooms down the page to a headline that reads "US Inverted Jenny" "Worth more than gold" |
| 0:22 | The camera pans right to show an image of the "Inverted" Jenny stamp. It is a small almost square perforated stamp with a white border. Inside is a dark red line engraving with the words US POSTAGE and CENTS. One the bottom right and left of the stamp is a small dark red circle with 24. In the middle is a blue line drawing of a plane displayed upside down. | |
| 0:24 | which sold in 2016 for over one and a half million dollars! | Text "SOLD FOR OVER 1.5 MILLION" is stamped over the stamp. |
| 0:26 | and the world’s most valuable stamp, | A large art-deco styled banner appears on screen. It is black, white and grey. The text THE WORLD'S MOST VALUABLE STAMP is shown |
| 0:29 | the 1856 one cent British Guiana Stamp, | Text: 'The 1856 One Cent British Guiana' appears with an image of that stamp underneath. It is burgundy in color in a hexagon shape. Little of the text is readable as there is also a postmark obscuring the old text. The only word legible is GUIANA at the bottom of the stamp. |
| 0:33 | worth over 12 million dollars! has led to a huge interest in stamp collecting. | Text: 'Worth over 12 Million Dollars' appears |
| 0:38 | The value of stamps is determined by their age, their scarcity and their condition. |
On a background of floating stamps an odometer with the text Age Scarcity Condition at the top and a needle, grey with red tip, pointed at word low. The needle slowly moves to the right until it comes to rest on the word High. |
| 0:43 | But collecting is not just about a stamp’s value - it’s fun to collect colourful, |
Cut to a scene of 4 children sitting beside an outside play area. The play area is in a park surrounded by grass and trees. The equipment is a complex amalgamation of ropes, wood, steel and blue plastic. The children are sitting in a circle looking at stamp albums. Using magnifying glasses to look more closely at the stamps. Sharing and talking to each other. |
| 0:48 | interesting or unusual stamps, sort them into an album, and trade them with your friends! | Close up on two of the children as they look at the stamps and albums more closely. The girl has a magnifying glass in her right hand and the boy is sitting crossed legged. |
| 0:50 | The two swap stamps | |
| 0:53 | Each year Australia Post dedicates a whole month to stamp collecting |
A spinning page from a calendar displaying July comes into view. It then flips over to August., September then October before zooming in again |
| 0:58 | and every year a different theme is chosen for a series of exciting new stamps and products | The calendar page then zooms out rapidly, to show a selection of stamp collecting months stamps from previous years. The stamps then zoom in to reveal a white background. |
| 1:02 | A new illustration of a country scene with green hills and trees comes into focus. | |
| 1:04 | like the endangered species series which featured some Australia native animals including | Two children appear in the scene along with the $1 Southern Corroboree Frog stamp, in the bottom right-hand corner, from the 2016 Endangered Wildlife stamp issue. |
| 1:06 | The trunk of an elephant is seen in the right of the video frame as the camera zooms out. | |
| 1:08 | the Orange-bellied parrot and the Southern Corroboree Frog, | As the camera continues to zoom out we see an illustration on the left of the video frame of a Southern Corroboree Frog on a fallen log and on the right an orange-bellied parrot perched on a tree. |
| 1:10 | as well as some exotic species like the Asian Elephant, and the Western Lowland Gorilla. | The camera continues to zoom out and now a gorilla is seen on the left and more of the elephant on the right. The girl in the middle is looking through binoculars and turning around on the spot |
| 1:17 | We’ve also explored the depths of our solar system where we took a thrilling ride | The video transforms to show a young boy in a spacesuit. In the right-hand bottom of the screen is the 70c Saturn stamp from the Our Solar System stamp issue. The camera zooms out from the boy as he looks around |
| 1:20 | Behind the boy, an image of Earth can be seen. | |
| 1:22 |
through space and visiting all 8 planets; | The zoom out increases quickly and the eight planets and the sun of our solar system replace the disappearing boy. |
| 1:26 |
from the inhospitable heat of Mercury and Venus | The focus of the video is then changed to the two planets closest to the sun, Mercury and Venus. |
| 1:28 |
through to the eerie, cold gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn. | Action zooms to the right with a new focus on Jupiter and Saturn. |
| 1:32 |
Back to an illustrated scene again, this time of prehistoric earth. Two children are facing the left of the screen while two erupting mountain volcanoes explode in the background, behind a Tyrannosaurus Rex. In the bottom right-hand corner of the screen is the 60c Qantassaurus stamp from Australia's Age of Dinosaurs 2013 stamp issue. | |
| 1:33 |
And we travelled way back in time with some beautifully illustrated drawings of some weird and wonderful | The children are walking and looking around themselves, high and low, while the dinosaur moves behind them. |
| 1:37 |
and sometimes scary, dinosaurs. | The Tyrannosaurs Rex makes a loud roar and the camera quickly turns to focus on the children as they look around with fear in their eyes. They turn to look to where the dinosaur was making the noise. |
| 1:40 | The camera zooms out again and we see the full picture of the dinosaur roaring and the children cowering in fear. | |
| 1:43 |
All you need to start your own collection | Replacing the previous screen the video now shows an inside spread of the Star Trek stamp pack |
| 1:45 |
is a stamp album and some stamps. | Image flips to show the two inside pages of the Peppa Pag stamp pack that zooms in gently before revealing |
| 1:47 | You can buy stamps from your local Australia Post shop, | the inside spread of the Danger Mouse stamp pack. |
| 1:49 | swap them with your friends, or ask your family to save stamps for you. | Image flips again to show the inside spread of the Giggle and Hoot stamp pack. |
| 1:51 | Image flips once again, now showing the inside spread of the Superman stamp pack. | |
| 1:54 | Stamp collecting | The text 'Stamp Collecting' appears comprising of a multiple coloured overlay. |
| 1:55 | is a lot of fun. | The text 'is a lot of fun' appears comprising of a multiple coloured overlay. |
| 1:57 | And who knows, you may even find a rare stamp worth a lot of money! | The upside-down Jenny aeroplane comes into the screen from the right-hand side. It moves all the way to the right and is gone. |
| 2:01 | Australia Post logo | |
| 2:02 | Text 'auspostcollectables.com.au' appears below the logo. | |
| 2:12 | Video ends. |
Stamp Collecting Month (SCM) is all about engaging middle to upper primary school students (and their teachers) with interesting themes, presented through stamps. This website explores a range of topics related to wildlife conservation and our Wildlife Recovery stamp issue. It also contains videos, fun activities, teaching resources and more.
Explore six of the listed species identified for immediate conservation management and that feature on our stamps.
View all six Wildlife Recovery stamps.
Bathurst Copper Butterfly
One of Australia’s rarest butterflies, the Bathurst Copper Butterfly ...
Davies’ Tree Frog
The Davies’ Tree Frog is a medium-sized frog, with females growing ...
Kangaroo Island Dunnart
The Kangaroo Island Dunnart is a small, nocturnal marsupial ...
Regent Honeyeater
The Regent Honeyeater is a striking, gregarious honeyeater ...
Blue Mountains Water Skink
A medium-sized semi-aquatic lizard, the adult Blue Mountains Water Skink ...
Stamp designs from St Thomas Aquinas School, Bowral, NSW
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Lesson plans for teachers
This year each school and classroom has adapted to a blended learning approach. Our teacher guides have been tailored to suit both the classroom and home learning environments. Our SCM resources include fun and engaging activities that focus on discovering more about the factors that lead to animal endangerment and what can be done to help animals recover.
Stage 2: Activity Guide:
Stage 2: Activity Guide
In this year’s project for Stamp Collecting Month 2020 Year 3 and 4 students are invited to participate in a Design Thinking challenge to create an ‘enrichment resource’ for an Australian Endangered Animal of their choice.
Stage 3: Activity Guide:
Stage 3: Activity Guide
In this year’s project for Stamp Collecting Month 2020 Year 5 and 6 students will work collaboratively to propose a solution for a chosen Australian endangered animal.
- Stage 2: Activity Guide
- Stage 3: Activity Guide
If you’re a parent, caregiver or teacher, here are some free resources to share with children. Want some more advice on stamp collecting? Read our tips on starting a collection.
Fun family activities you can do at home
Looking to keep the kids entertained during lockdown, or simply looking for an activity to do as a family. Check out our family guide for some fun home activities.
The Pen Pal Club
Pen pal letter writing is a fun, creative and rewarding way for your students to practice literacy and communication. Use our lesson plans, sample templates and/or join our Pen Pal Club to get started.
Lesson plans for teachers:
Learn about stamps
Learn about stamps
Check out our three lesson plans on how students can learn about the history and creation of stamps.
