THE POSTAL HISTORY OF ICAO

1953: Melbourne Regional air navigation meeting

The Second South East Asia and Limited South Pacific (SEA/SOP) Regional Air Navigation (RAN) Meeting was held on the premises of the University (Union Building), Melbourne, Victoria, Australia from 13 January to 9 February 1953. During the meeting, a special post office was opened at the University of Melbourne in connection with the above ICAO conference and for the convenience of the Delegates to the meeting. It should be noted that ICAO had originally scheduled the meeting until Friday 13 February; however, the meeting ended on Monday 9 February 1953.

The first meeting for the South Pacific Region was convened in Melbourne in February 1947. Several cancels were reutilized from this first meeting and slightly modified due to the new circumstances that prevailed in 1953, namely that ICAO had come into being in 1947.

The abbreviated name of the organization (ICAO), along with the abbreviated place (Melb.) and country (Aust.) of the meeting were stamped manually on the registration labels. As it can be noticed, the hand-stamp used for the first meeting was reutilized for the second meeting; however, the letter “P” had been cut out and the positioning of “ICAO” on the stamp remained the same.

The conference hand-stamp: I.C.A.O. – Melbourne, Aust. was reutilized from the first meeting, with the letter “P” in front of the text cut out.

First Day Cover addressed to Air Vice Marshal Alan Ferrier,

ICAO Assistant Secretary General for Air Navigation Bureau,

Chief Technical Advisor to the meeting.

First Day Cover providing information on the special post office

open during the meeting.

Back of the above cover, with the special conference hand-stamp.

Second cancel for this meeting.

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