History

The Gladstone and District Philatelic Society started as a public notice announcement in the "Gladstone Observer" newspaper inviting interested people to attend a meeting for the purpose of forming a Stamp Club.

The inaugural meeting was held on the 9th of May 1980.

 

In 1988 the club undertook the process of becoming an incorporated entity. It is now Incorporated. 

As a service to the community, outreach of the society and to promote philately since 1985 the society has held a "Stamp Day" in conjunction with the annual Gladstone Harbour Festival on the Easter long weekend.  From 1985 to 1994 the "Stamp Day" was held on Easter Saturday, in 1995 the event was expanded to a "Stamp Fair" over 2 days Saturday and Sunday.   Sadly  the last Easter Stamp Fair was held in  2019. 

In 2020 no Fair was held due to the Covid 19 Pandemic. 

It is planned in 2020 that all future Stamp Fairs  will be held on the weekend of the 9th of May, our birthday, or the weekend closest to it. 

The annual "Stamp Fair" offers a chance for the collectors of Gladstone and the wider community to explore philately and meet socially. 

 

On the weekend of the 8/9th of May 2010 the Society celebrated it's 30th Birthday with a dinner on the Saturday night and a Stamp Social Day on the Sunday to which we had invited collectors from Bundaberg, Rockhampton and Biloela. 

During the Sunday celebrations the Society awarded Life membership to Michelle McCarthy, a worthy recepipant.

Michelle joins Jack Henry [dec] Kevin Knight [dec] and Ian Rippingale as a Life Member.  

Two further Life Members were awarded in 2015, Noela French and Linda Rippingale were acknowledged in August, 2015

Life membership was awarded to  Roydon Wood , Easter 2019.  

A commemorative cover for our 30th birthday was produced, look elsewhere on this site for more details.

 In late November early December 2010, the Society as part of it's charter to promote Philately in the Gladstone area distributed 31 copies of the new Seven Seas Stamps Australian Catalogue to all schools in the Gladstone Regional Council area. These 31 schools are every school listed on the Council web site. the schools ranged from Ambrose in the north to Rosedale in the south.

this has been a considerable project by the Society as each catalogue is valued at $49.50. 

GDPS Inc acknowledges the support of John Higgs of Seven Seas Stamps in fulling this project. 

GDPS continues to serve the community in Gladstone through regular opportunities where stamps may be purchased from circuit books and the annual Stamp Fair  each year. These gatherings allow the general public to access Philatelic Material and information from wider fields.