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Mega stamp collection

15 October 2008

Stamps
Artist Peter Trusler

Monash University researchers together with a renowned Australian artist have created the images for the latest stamp issue by Australia Post.

Director of the Monash Science Centre and palaeontologist Professor Pat Vickers-Rich worked closely with artist and Monash alumnus Peter Trusler over a five-month period to develop and design the creatures for the megafauna stamp series.

Mr Trusler spent a further six weeks creating the single oil painting from which the stamp images were digitally scanned.

The stamp issue depicts six different species of Australian megafauna that roamed Gondwanaland for millions of years prior to their extinction between 20,000 to 50,000 years ago.

Mr Trusler said the stamps depicted a concept of what he thought the species would have looked like.

"We had no first hand knowledge, photographs, or drawings to work from, however my original concept is very true to historic recordings, fossils and the ideas of experts who have spent their lives uncovering this wonderful era in our country's history," Mr Trusler said.

Professor Pat Vickers-Rich said with the exception of the Tasmanian Tiger, which was still alive last century and is depicted in photographs and film, the only link to megafauna is through fossil records.

"It was a painstaking process, but we believe Peter's brilliant artwork is an incredibly accurate depiction of the large animals that roamed Australia so many years ago," Professor Vickers-Rich said.

The stamp issue release coincides with a world-first display of flora and fossils and other striking images by Mr Trusler at Monash University's Science Centre.

The Wildlife of Gondwana travelling exhibition includes more than 300 original and cast fossils, some of which have never before travelled outside their home institutions.

The exhibition is open to the public from 10am to 5pm weekdays at the Monash Science Centre, Clayton campus until the end of January 2009.