By Richard Peck

The parcel network in Australia today is probably the least understood and least studied of the various services on Australia Post. There have been many postal markings and postal labels used in conjunction with it, here are just a few.

Between 1922-1925 the black labels (Fig.1) were used for recording parcels by number in the Parcels Ledger at the office of posting. However as some offices ran out of registered labels, these PP2 labels were sometimes used in their place, which explains why they are today so scarce.

Their use was discontinued in 1925. Note that the larger offices only had pads up to 1000, the larger (such as the one shown) went to 10,000. The following have been seen: NSW Lithgow 1567, Leeton 4330, Singleton 2433, Tamworth 9653, Termeil 182, Waterloo 1819 (with red pencil R), Wickham 1399, Galston 150, Coramba 684, Cjharing Cross 1381 (with PP2 crossed out), Eubalong 498, Cessnock 5953, Bethungra 429, Strathfield 5071 and Tamworth 9999.

Frazer & Occleshaw, The official postal labels of Australia (2 nd edition) list other types for other states, so they were probably printed separately in each state. There is also a type without NSW.