Coolgardie Cycle Express Co.
Limited edition centenary stamps.
History.
Gold was discovered near Coolgardie in 1892 and gold fever soon struck with the area growing to well over 20, 000 people in only a few years. The government was unable to keep up with the sudden progress and private postal services soon appeared to help carry messages around the goldfields.
The Coolgardie Cycle Express Co., started by James A. Healy was one such organisation, we can't be certain that the following photo of a Coolgardie cycle messenger shows a rider employed by this company. However this fascinating photo gives some idea of what such a rider would have looked like.
The second photo may also show employees of the Coolgardie Cycle Express Co. posing with their bicycles.
The Coolgardie Cycle Express Co. produced a series of stamps to be used on their service. Since fairly early times these stamps have been highly collectible.
The above photo shows a fascinating cover from 1895. The purple Coolgardie Cycle Express Co. postmark is particularly interesting, as is the fact it has been used in conjunction with the official WA postal service. Healy later extended the operation to include camel messengers and a series of stamps were produced to include this new service. The iconic Coolgardie Camels remain a highly sought after collection of stamps.
A typical camel messenger service probably looked much like this one.
By 1896 the government postal service began to catch up and the company closed. The Coolgardie Cycle Express Co. ran for as little as 2 years. However in 1896 two Lake Lefroy men set up a similar service to carry messages between Lake Lefroy and Coolgardie. They printed the famous Lake Lefroy Swan.
Additional information:
Map of Coolgardie goldfields region.
Books with more information (will take you away from this site).
The Australian Encyclopaedia - Page 264
by
Alec Hugh Chisholm - Australia
- 1958 The Coolgardie Cycle Express Co. issued,
in 1894, two stamps of the denominations
of Is. and 2s. 6d. respectively, bearing a crude representation
of a ...
The Gold Rushes - Page 303
by
William Parker Morrell - - 1941 - 426 pages Outlying camps—notably Menzies nearly 100
miles north of Coolgardie—were also
booming, ... by a bicycle express service along
the tracks made by the camels. ...
The Land of Gold: The Narrative of a Journey Through the West Australian ... - Page 74
by
Julius Mendes Price - - 1896 - 204 pages Whilst I was in Coolgardie, a man
returned from one of these " rushes ... that a
service of express riders has been organised to carry
letters and telegrams ...
Battling for Gold, Or, Stirring Incidents of Goldfields Life in West Australia - Page 101
by
John Marshall - 1903 - 206 pages The special cyclists who carried the express
mails to the outlying centres ...
animals took place in the latter part of '94, between Dundas and
Coolgardie. ...
Local Stamps of Australia: With a Listing of Commemorative Postal Vignettes
by Bill Hornadge - 1982 - 192 pages
Western Australia, the Stamps and Postal History: A Guide to Its Philately
by Western Australia Study Group, Margaret Hamilton - - 1979 - 471 pages
You can read the brief description of this service in the free to download in Spinifex and Sand by David Wynford Carnegie here.
"Before the erection of telegraph wires, which now connect all the more important mining towns, cyclists made good money by carrying special messages from Coolgardie to the outlying districts. Except where the sand was deep they had a good track, well-beaten by the flat pads of camels, and could do their hundred miles a day at a push. Travelling at express rate, they were unable to carry blankets or provisions except of the scantiest description, and took their chance of hitting off the camp of some wayfarer, who would always be ready to show what hospitality he could, to messengers of so much importance."
Many of the photos on this page are here for research purposes only and are copies from a private collection placed here in good faith.. If you believe you have the rights to these photographs please contact us so we can remove them.
