"WILLSONS DOWNFALL NSW": LOVELY "OSNSW" PUNCTURED KANGAROO POSTMARK & HISTORY

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A VERY PRETTY 1st WATERMARK (1914) 2d SILVER-GREY KANGAROO: POSTMARKED "WILL(SONS) DOWNFALL" DATED 1914 & PUNCTURED "OSNSW" FOR OFFICIAL SERVICE IN WILLSONS DOWNFALL

The ‘POSTMARK BIBLE’: "N.S.W. and A.C.T. Post, Receiving, Telegraph & Telephone Offices" by N.C. HOPSON AND R. TOBIN, Volume 4, (November 1999) gives the following information on the postoffice (page W-23): WILLSONS DOWNFALL: 5k from AMOSFIELD; Post Office opened 1 June 1875; Postmaster W. Palmer; Money Order Office 1 October 1886; Telephone & Telegraph Service 23 October 1908; Semi Official Post Office 1 June 1909; TX Manual Telephone Exchange 12 September 1917; Non-Official Post Office 22 October 1917; Post Office closed & Telephone & Telegraph Office only; Telephone & Telegraph Office closed 27 September 1976: There were only 3 different cancellations: a numeral ‘780'; Type 1A 1882-1916; and Type 2D which had an apostrophe from 1919-57.

This is one of the better cancels I have seen. It is also another example at this Post Office where the postmaster/postal clerk inserted the date slug incorrectly ('DE' REVERSED). This unframed Type 1A (given the date) is postmarked: WILL(SONS) DOWNFALL/24 DE/1914/N.S.W.

An article appearing in The Sydney Morning Herald dated 2 September 1927 (p.6) headed "Willson’s Downfall" (Letters to the Editor) read as follows:

"Sir, – The statement of Mr. John White in his letter in to-day’s "Herald" as to the origin of the name "Willson’s Downfall", in the Tenterfield district, is correct. The writer was for many years resident in that district, and had heard several old residents who knew the late Mr. George Willson confirm the fact that he had a capsize on the road at or near where the small village of Willson’s Downfall stands, and hence the name. The village is situated about 29 miles north of Tenterfield, on the Stanthorpe [Queensland]- Warwick road. Mr. Willson was, at one time, in partnership with a Mr. Sweetland, and he owned or had mortgages over, one might say, half the town properties of Tenterfield, but unfortunately ended in a "financial" downfall, but it was the "physical" upset that still keeps his name alive in the nomenclature of the district."

"In his time he was a leading citizen, and a sort of commercial "King." The Maryland Stores, where he carried on business, are now carried on as a store by a son of the late Hon. C.A. Lee (who had almost a political record reign as a member for the district, having never been defeated in 25 years, during which period he was twice a minister)".

A small amount of additional information was found for George Willson who resided in Tenterfield NSW and his business partner, Charles Sweetland. The Moreton Bay Courier, Brisbane (p3) carried a long article which was headlined Annexation Movement In New England. George Willson was one of the leading proponents of an "influential assemblage" of prominent men (with a lesser role played by Sweetland) who met to petition the Queen that there was a need to separate an area of northern New South Wales with the aim that it be annexed by the colony of Queensland. This came about because there was a "continued and systematic neglect of the area by the Government of New South Wales". The Sydney Morning Herald on 24 August 1864 listed that George Willson was made a Justice of the Peace, in the same paper dated 8 September 1869 there was a death notice for George Willson of Tenterfield NSW, stating that he had died at his home of apoplexy on 21 August 1869 at the age of 49.

The township of Willson’s Downfall still exists even though it has no post office today. The town lies almost directly north and 730 km from Sydney and has a population of around 4,500. This lovely 2d SILVER-GREY Kangaroo was struck at WILLSONS DOWNFALL on 24 DE 1914. The postmark MONTH PLUG has been inverted and reversed. A scarce NSW Postmark...   

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