Auction 321 - 332 Australian States & Commonwealth of Australia, St. Helena, Basutoland, Bechuanaland, Swaziland, Brazil 1843 –1870 - Day 1

Express Companies 1860: Cover addressed to London franked by 1858 6 d. blue, rouletted 5½-6½, struck on reverse with large unframed circular "FROM THE / INGLEWOOD / AUSTRALIAN EXPRESS" cachet in black on reverse, with oval "SANDY CREEK / ♚ / VICTORIA" despatch datestamp (May 16) and Melbourne arrival transit cds of the following day. London arrival on obverse (July 11) in red. Illustrated in "Gold Fever" by Kenneth J. Kutz on page 90. An extremely rare Express cover.rnrnProvenance: Prestige, Melbourne, 22 April 2006, lot 481.rnrnNote: The Post Offices in the Goldfields were wholly inadequate. This from the Maryborough & Dunnolly Advertiser of Jan 20, 1860: "The necessity for an improvement in the postal arrangements here is very manifest...complaints are numerous of persons having to wait for hours before they can obtain their letters, while some...depart and return the following day, only to find the crowds as numerous as the day before".