The Singapore - Brisbane stage of the Empire Air Service was opened in December 1934 providing the first regular airmail service between Australia and the UK.

Qantas Empire Airways (QEA) was formed by Qantas and Imperial Airways to fly the route between Singapore and Brisbane. The first airmail left Brisbane on 10 December and arrived in Singapore on 15 December and in the UK on 24 December.

From New Zealand

Mail for this flight from New Zealand was sent to Sydney by sea, leaving Auckland on 30 November. The routing for this flight was Via Australia-Singapore-England.

The cover on the left was posted in Christchurch on 28 November and therefore has the correct date for the new service although it has no routing instructions.

The postal rate for the new service was 1/6 and the cover has stamps to the value of 1/7. The most likely explanation for the extra 1d Health is that it is a late fee. There is no backstamp, but that is normal.

The next cover is addressed to India.

It arrived in Calcutta on 17 December and is backstamped on 17 December and on 18 December.

It has the correct franking of 1/2.

Although the rate to the UK was 1/6, the rate to intermediate (non British Empire) destinations was often higher. This cover is addressed to France and has the necessary franking of 1/9.

The mail arrived in Paris by rail from Brindisi on 24 December and the cover has two Paris backstamps, both on 24 December.

The UK mail was flown later that day from Paris to Croydon.

The envelope was produced for an earlier flight and has a picture of Charles Ulm although he did not take part in this flight. A poignant note is struck by the fact that Ulm disappeared without trace when flying from the USA to Hawaii three days after this cover was posted.

The route

The route from Sydney was by rail to Cootamundra on the night of 9-10 December and then on 10 December by Butler Air Transport to Charleville in a DH 84 Dragon where the mail was transferred later that day to the Qantas Empire Airways flight from Brisbane.

Two planes were used by Qantas Empire Airways on the inaugural flight from Brisbane to Darwin on 10 -12 December, a DH 61 and a DH 50. A link with the past was G U (Scotty) Allan who was the pilot of the DH 50. He had been Kingsford Smith's co-pilot from Darwin to Akyab in the first official Australia - Great Britain experimental flight in 1931.

QEA had intended to use a DH 86A Express, but due to two recent crashes, these planes had been grounded. As they could not use their DH 86A aircraft, the Darwin - Singapore section was flown by Imperial Airways in an Armstrong Whitworth AW 15 Atalanta on 13 - 14 December. The route from Singapore to Karachi on 15 - 18 December was similar to the experimental flight of 1931, but with the inclusion of Bangkok.

Walker [1] states that there was a stop at Penang, but the timetables shown in Wingent [2] indicate that although a stop in Penang had been introduced in April 1934, it was dropped later that year and then re-instated in October 1935.

From Karachi, the flight was along the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf to Basra and then on to Cairo which was reached on 21 December.

From Cairo, the mail was taken to Alexandria and on 22 December flown in a Short S17 Kent flying boat to Athens and then Brindisi in Southern Italy. The mail was then taken by rail to Paris on 22 -24 December and then flown from Paris to Croydon Airport near London on 24 December.

Intermediate stages

Mail could now be flown all the way from Australia to a range of destinations.

The shown cover was flown from Camooweal in Queensland to Athens and has the correct franking to Greece of 1/9.

In Athens, a special blue cachet was applied. For mail from New Zealand, this cachet is only known in purple or black.

The mail arrived in Athens on 22 December and large airmail labels were attached to the back. A backstamp showing a biplane was also applied.

The cover is addresed to P J Drossos, a well known Greek aerophilatelist who was responsible for many airmail covers during this period.

UK to Australia

The first regular airmail from the UK to Australia left on December 8 and arrived in Sydney on December 21. Letters for New Zealand were sent on by sea. The cost was 1/3 per ½ oz, i.e. 3d less than it cost to send a letter from New Zealand.

Due to the heavy mail on the inaugural flight, this service was duplicated. According to Wingent [2], the mail for Australia and New Zealand went by the normal service to Karachi (i.e. by rail from Paris to Brindisi) while mail for Karachi was flown all the way by the HP 42 airliner Hengist. Apparently Hengist did not arrive in Karachi until 14 December while Athena (an AW Atalanta) left Karachi on 13 December.

Athena flew the mail to Darwin arriving on December 18. Qantas then flew the mail to Brisbane with the Sydney and New Zealand mail being off-loaded at Charleville on 21 December.

Butler Air Transport had the contract to fly the mail from Charleville via Narromine to Cootamundra from where it was to be sent to Sydney by rail. As there had been delays, the mail was flown directly to Sydney from Narromine in an Avro 10 that had been chartered from New England Airways.

Stapleton states that all mail was backstamped on arrival in Sydney. However, although the above cover is postmarked London on December 6 and has the correct routing instructions, it does not have a backstamp.

The next example is a postcard for which the postal rate was 6d.

It was backstamped in Sydney on 21 December and on arrival in Taupaki (Auckland) in New Zealand on 26 December. Walker [1] reports that the Christchurch mail did not arrive until 28 December.

Cover from Hong Kong

This next cover is postmarked in Hong Kong on 8 December. Although the postmark includes the words Air Mail, the Hong Kong Imperial Airways flight connection did not start until March 1936.

It was therefore carried to Singapore by sea where it joined the first regular flight to Australia which left Singapore on 16 December.

The cover is franked with 35c which was postage rate per quarter oz.

It has the usual Sydney backstamp on 21 December and it would then be taken from there to New Zealand by sea.

Later flights to UK

January 1935

Several covers with routing instructions are shown. The first is postmarked 10 January 1935 and would have been flown on the Qantas service that had left Brisbane on 16 January and arrived in London on 28 January [2].

It would have been flown Darwin - Singapore by Imperial Airways as according to Walker [1], Qantas did not take over the Darwin to Singapore leg until the flight which left Brisbane on 25 February.

However, Wingent [2] reports that Lloyd's List does not report the 25 Feb flight and that Qantas first flew the Darwin to Singapore leg a month earlier on the service that left Brisbane on 23 January.

This cover has a Wellington postmark of 15 January and so was flown on that service. The flight arrived in London on 7 February which ties in with the manuscript Rec'd Feb 8th on the front.

This must have been an experimental flight because, according to Wingent [2], the next few flights were again by Imperial Airways with the beginning of the regular service by Qantas starting with the flight that left Brisbane on 20 February.

Jubilee, May 1935

This next cover was to have been flown on the first official airmail flight from New Zealand to the UK on 17 May 1935.

However, due to the problems with Kingsford Smith's flight to New Zealand, the flight was cancelled and the leg to Australia was by sea.

The cover has a franking of 1/10, but it should have been 2/1 to include the extra cost of 7d for the intended trans-Tasman flight.

It was flown to the UK on the service that left Brisbane on 22 May and arrived in London on 3 June.

Later Flights

The next is postmarked 27 June 1935 and shows an attractive mix of the two different airmail sets of stamps.

It has the correct franking of 1/6. Assuming that it was flown on the Qantas service that left Brisbane on 3 July, it would have arrived in London on 15 July [2].

The large number of stamps on this cover total 6/- which is four times the normal rate and so it presumably carried heavy documents. As it is postmarked 13 September 1935, the second pictorial stamps must all have a single watermark. It would have been flown on the flight that arrived in London on 30 September.

The next cover is postmarked 13 January 1936 and is backstamped in London on 5 February.

It is unusual in that it has franking of 4/6, i.e. three times the normal rate.

The service continued at the postal rate of 1/6 until the Third Stage of the Empire Airmail Scheme started in July 1938 and the rate was reduced to 1½d.

The Second Stage of the Empire Airmail Scheme to India and Malaya started on 23 February 1938. This cover (postmarked May 1938) has a cachet on the back, applied on arrival in London, advertising the reduced rate to Africa, India and Malaya.

EAMS relied on the introduction of flying boats on the route. From February 1937, The London - Alexandria leg was by flying boat which meant that the only stage in the journey from London to Sydney that was not flown was the final stage from Cootamundra.

London - Karachi was by flying boat after October 1937 and London - Singapore after February 1938. The first airmail to be flown all the way to Australia arrived on 6 July 1938 and the first in the opposite direction left on 7 July. The Qantas terminus was now Sydney rather than Brisbane and this meant that at last the London - Sydney service was entirely by air.

Other destinations

Malaya, October 1936

This cover is postmarked on 13 October 1936 and is addressed to Kuala Lumpur which was then in the Federated Malay States.

The air mail postage from New Zealand to Malaya was 9d and so the cover is correctly franked.

It is likely to have been flown on the flight that arrived in Singapore on 24 October.

Palestine, May 1938

According to Walker [1] and Wingent [2], the rate from New Zealand to Iraq and Palestine and Egypt was 1/7 per oz. This is the only case where the New Zealand rate differs from the rate from Australia which was 1/8 for the first ½oz [2].

However, this 1938 cover from New Zealand to Jerusalem has franking of 1/8.

It has the routing Australia - Singapore.

Switzerland, March 1937

The rate of 1/6 was for the complete journey from New Zealand to the UK. Although the route to the UK was via Greece, Italy and France, the postage rate to these countries from New Zealand was 1/9.

This cover is postmarked 18 March 1937 and is addressed to Switzerland. However, it only has franking of 1/6 rather than the required 1/9 which is why it has a postage due T imprint with 60 centimes to pay.

It has the routing instructions Australia - Singapore - England, but the England has been scored out and replaced by Italy as it would have been off-loaded there.

Germany, August 1937

This next cover is addressed to Germany and has routing instructions Per Australia-Italy Airmail.

It has a Late Fee handstamp which is the reason that it is franked with 1/10 in stamps rather than the usual 1/9.

It was postmarked Wellington on 20 August 1937 and would have been on the service that left Sydney on 25 August and Alexandria on 4 September. It would be offloaded in Rome on 5 September and taken to Germany by train, arriving in Braunschweig on 7 September.

Denmark, 1936

This cover is addressed to Copenhagen and has the routing instructions Australia - Greece - Denmark. It was therefore offloaded from the Imperial Airways flight at Athens and flown through Europe from there. The flight which left Brisbane on 8 July arrived in Athens on 18 July. The cover is backstamped in Athens on 18 July and in Copenhagen on 21 July.

It is franked with 2/2 which is the correct rate for that route [2].

The next cover to Denmark is postmarked 18 December 1936 and has the routing instructions: Australia - London - Copenhagen. The cover has franking of 1/11½ and, as the rate to Denmark via London was 1/9, it carries sufficient postage. However, it has a postage due T imprint.

The cover has a Greek transit postmark dated 7 January 1937 on the back and so was offloaded at Athens and flown by the same route as the previous cover. (The service that left Brisbane on 26 December arrived in Athens on 7 January [2].)

So, the postal authorities sent the cover by a more expensive route than the routing instructions and then compounded their mistake by adding a surcharge!

Italy, July 1939

This cover is addressed to Rome. It is postmarked on 21 July 1939, has a Rome backstamp on 5 August and would be flown on the flight that left Sydney on 27 July and was scheduled to arrive in Rome on 4 August.

It is franked with the correct rate of 1/9. Although Rome was on the IA route from Australia to UK and the Empire Airmail Scheme meant that the cost to the UK was only 1½d, mail to intermediate non-Empire destinations cost a lot more.

I am not sure of the meaning of the 100 O backstamp.

From Empire Exhibition, Johannesburg, December 1936

The Empire Exhibition was held in Johannesburg from October 1936 to January 1937. Souvenir postcards could be puchased and posted at the Exhibition where they would then be sent by airmail to anywhere in the world at a cost of a halfpenny.

This card to New Zealand was posted on 16 November and is backstamped in Sydney on 4 December. It would have been flown from Johannesburg to Cairo where it would connect with the Eastern Route flight to Australia. Aparently, 365 postcards were sent to New Zealand from the Exhibition out of a total of 29,307 cards, two thirds of which were sent internally in South Africa or to the UK [4].

The size of the price reduction is clearly seen in comparison with the franking on the next cover from New Zealand to South Africa.

South Africa, May 1937

This cover is to South Africa in May 1937 and has the correct franking of 2/9 which was also the rate for Bechuanaland and South West Africa.

It has the approved routing instructions of Australia - Egypt - South Africa. The first airmail from New Zealand to Africa had been in June 1932.

UK to NZ

The rate from UK to New Zealand was 1/3 per ½oz. This 1938 cover from the UK is franked with a 2/6 GV Seahorse and so was overweight.

It is postmarked on 17 April 1938 and backstamped at Cross Creek, New Zealand on 11 May. It therefore took rather a long time (25 days). It would have been flown by IA from Southampton on either 21 or 24 April and arrive in Sydney on either 2 or 5 May [3]. The final leg from Cootamundra to Sydney was still by train.

Flying remained dangerous and several crashes occurred including those of the Scipio and Cygnus in August 1936 and December 1937 and the Calpurnia in November 1938.

Preliminary to the first flight

This cover has Dutch East Indies stamps overprinted ARETHUSA in purple using a rubber stamp together with a 2d Australian stamp postmarked in Brisbane on 22 December 1934. It also has the typewritten routing instruction "PER ARETHUSA".

The Armstrong Whitworth AW 15 Atalanta class Arethusa flew the Darwin - Karachi leg of the first regular Australia - UK flight on 13 - 18 December. It had arrived in Singapore on 2 December [2] and so would have flown to Darwin via the Dutch East Indies some time in the following ten days.

That suggests the following scenario. Some by favour mail was picked up in the Dutch East Indies during the Arethusa's positioning flight some time between 3 and 12 December. This mail was offloaded at Darwin and then flown, again by favour, from Darwin to Brisbane on 19-21 December on the first regular UK - Australia flight. The Australian stamp was added on arrival in Brisbane where the cover was posted normally.

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All scans were made by the author.
[1] Airmails of New Zealand, volume 2 (1986) compiled by Douglas A Walker, and The New Zealand Airmail Catalogue, (2nd Edition, 1994) by James Stapleton. Both are published by the Air Mail Society of New Zealand
[2] Aircraft Movements on Imperial Airways' Eastern Route, Vol 1, 1927 - 1937, Peter Wingent, Winchester 1999.
[3] Aircraft Movements on Imperial Airways' Eastern Route, Vol 2, 1937 - 1939, Peter Wingent, Winchester 2005.
[4] The Cheapest Airmail Ratein the World?, Air Mail News, vol 51, pp 7 - 13, May 2008.

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