Exhibition Report from Bernard Doherty, Australian Commissioner

The South Africa National Exhibition Stampshow 2000 Pretoria was held in the Rautenbach Hall, University of Pretoria, from 25 to 28 October, 2000.  Australia was invited to participate under special arrangements as part of the new Accord.

The exhibition comprised 325 frame sides, plus 50 sides of Court of Honour exhibits.  The participation by class was interesting to note: Postal History - 106 frames, Traditional (Southern Africa) - 68, Thematics - 32, Social Philately - 30, Traditional (rest of the World) - 29, Postcards - 17, Revenues - 15, Aerophilately - 14, Postal Stationery - 5, and other Collections - 9.

Six Australians participated providing three entries in the social class plus one each in aerophilately, maximaphily and postcards.  All awards at the national level are either 'floating' or 'non-floating' trophies.  These replace special prizes.  Of our six entries, three received floating trophies meaning they must be returned for awarding again at the next exhibition.

I held two seminars on Social Philately, giving an overview of the points for the social and open classes, followed by a run through of several exhibits.  Most of the attendees felt that the discussion was beneficial.  I also attended the full day of the South African Philatelic Federation Congress.  They appear to have similar people and problems to those experienced in Australia.

South Africa will be invited to participate in the 2001 Centennial Stampshow in Brisbane this October.

Australian Results

 [ Source:  APF News, February 2001 ]