Australia - International - AWA.
Coastal Radio Stations in Tasmania.

Hobart.

Call sign: VIH  
Opened: 30 April 1912. Closed:
Location: In the Queen's Domain high above the Derwent River below Mount Wellington.
Transferred to:
A RO6-WTS date stamp was issued for use at the Coatal Radio Station at Hobart:

Used in Violet: 19 December 1912 and 4 April 1913.

Size: 30 × 49 mm (e = 0.79).

Rated: RRRR.

Number in the Census: 2.
19 December 1912.
Used on a plain delivery envelope to Bellerive, Hobart
with cds of 23 December 1912.
Cover has a 1d. in red overprint on a 2d. Hobart pictorial.
  Hobart
4 April 1913.
Used on a green Radio Telegram form for a message from Adelie Land.

 

Flinders Island.

Call sign: VIL  
Opened: 8 October 1913. Closed: Closed soon after OTC took over in 1947.

Location: On Flinders Island in Bass Strait on the NE of Tasmania. It is the largest island in the Furneaux group.

This office was effectively the relay station for radio, telegraphic and cable traffic between Tasmania and Victoria on the mainland - and hence beyond. It was located on a high area suitable for the required wireless masts and was not far from Emita.

See also Flinders Island.
Two rubber oval date stamps were used in violet at Flinders Island:

The first format of the date stamp was inscribed WIRELESS TELEGRAPH STATION.

Used in violet: 1913 to 1 June 1925.

Size: 27 × 45 mm (e = 0.80).

Rated: RRRR.

Number in the Census: 4.

 

 

 


3 September 1914.

Used on an office memo to the Deputy Postmaster General in Hobart.
 


1 June 1925.
Tasmanian Stamp Auctions 1 April 2023.

 


16 February 1925.

See below for details of complete cover.


Cover showing the "WIRELESS T(ELEGRAPH STATION) /FLINDERS ISLAND
date stamp of 16 February 1925
(a very late usage before the inscription was changed
to RADIO STATION).

Also has a steel cds for EMITA - the nearest Post Office plus
a mss endorsement "Frm Flinders Is. TAS. No backstamps.

Provenance: John Avery.

Used in blue: 29 April 1916.

Size: 29 × 43 mm (e = 0.74).

Rated: RRRR.

Number in the Census: 1.


29 April 1916.

Used on a memo from the Post-Master General to the Deputy Post-Master General authorising £1 for conveyance of mails ex wrecked "Taroa" delivered overland.

The second date stamp was inscribed RADIO STATION/ FLINDERS ISLAND.

Used in violet: 1 Septenber 1933 to 1 July 1935 (so after 1925).

Size: 28 × 44 mm (e = 0.77).

Rated: RRRR.

Number in the Census: 2.


1 September 1933.
 
1 July 1935.

 

King Island.

Call sign: VZE  
Opened: 1911 then 1916. Closed: 1916 (abandoned).
Location:
Transferred to:

An Australian radio pioneer - Father Shaw - constructed the first station on King Island as an experiment. In 1916, the Australian Goverment built a station of its own design to fit into the Coastal Radio system and Father Shaw abandoned his project.

From 1941 to the end of World War 2, the King Island station was involved with the Air Intelligence Reporting System.

By the time OTC took over the station in 1947, the use of the station for monitoring ships had ceased and the station simply collected traffic from other islands in Bass Strait.