Overview
At midnight on 1 March 1975, television officially burst into colour across Australia. Preparing for C-Day, as it was called, all major networks devised catchy slogans: “Come to Colour,” said the ABC; Nine Network declared it was in “Living Color”; and Seven Network trumpeted “Seven Colors Your World”.
The use of the American spelling of colour was curious, given that Australia was years behind the rest of the world in adopting colour broadcasting; USA and Canada had made the transition by the mid-1960s. Making up for lost time, we embraced colour television with great enthusiasm. By 1978, more than 64 per cent of households in Melbourne and Sydney had purchased a new PAL standard colour television set.
Today we watch a range of streaming services as well as free-to-air broadcasts in high-definition colour on big-screen sets and other devices. It is hard to believe that it is only fifty years since our television viewing was transformed from black-and-white monochrome into full, glorious colour.
Technical specifications
- Issue date
- 25 March 2025
- Issue withdrawal date
- 1 October 2025
- Denomination
- $3
- Stamp & product design
- Lynda Warner
- Paper: gummed
- Tullis Russell 104gsm Red Phosphor/Blue PVA Stamp Paper
- Printer: gummed
- RA
- Printing process
- Offset Lithography
- Stamp size (mm)
- 37.5 x 26
- Perforations
- 13.86 x 14.6
- Sheet layout
- Module of 50 (2 x 25)
- FDI postmark
- Wollongong NSW 2500
- FDI withdrawal date
- 23 April 2025
$3.00 50 Years of Colour Television
The most original of the first colour transmissions on 1 March was a five-minute special on the ABC featuring characters from the groundbreaking, irreverent comedy, the Aunty Jack Show. At home in Wollongong, Aunty Jack (Grahame Bond), Thin Arthur (Rory O’Donoghue) and Kid Eager (Garry McDonald) are confronted with the terrifying, encroaching miasma of the “colour monster”. Colour leaks through the window and engulfs the room, turning everything except Aunty Jack into colour. The stamp shows her fruitlessly trying to paint the colour out of Kid Eager. Finally, even Aunty Jack turns into colour and the skit closes with a song farewelling black-and-white and celebrating colour.
The stamp photograph is by Jean and Fred Hort. The stamp photograph is reproduced by permission of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation – Library Sales. The Aunty Jack Show © 1975 ABC
