A bundle of postcards sent by Aussies travelling overseas , spanning almost half a century , contains interesting observations and comments about people , local tucker , tempting things to buy , the sights .
Found by our ragged , rummaging Shipping Reporter , most of the postcards were sent back to family and friends in North Queensland from many countries , including Japan , the Philippines, Fiji , India ,Singapore , Spain , Gibraltar, Portugal , Italy, Switzerland , Egypt , USA and England.
The senders of the above postcard , dated June 28,l962 , wrote that this was the venue for an International Lions Convention ,which they attended , one of them made a delegate , in Nice , France. There they met some Australians from Sydney and even Rusty Rees from Cairns !
This was presumably the prominent Cairns businessman who started Rusty's Market in 1974, still going today , a popular tourist attraction . He was also a well known local motorcycle speedway rider who in the l940s beat the crack Townsville rider, Harry Taylor .
Another postcard , a souvenir of Monte Carlo, bears several Lions Convention stamps . There is reference to a Lions meeting back in Queensland in another postcard .
The sender of a January 12 ,1980 postcard informed Mum and Dad that a lot of wattle had been seen in the lush French countryside. A trip to Monaco failed to produce a sighting of Princess Grace Kelly. Mind you, the lasagna had been tasty in Italy. In nine parcels wrapped to bring home were six containing books .
America's low prices were noted by a sender who in March l988 wrote from Seattle, Washington, stating that petrol was 80 cents a gallon ,underlined ; new cars started at $5500 ; food was also cheap .
From a bayou in lovely Louisiana, USA , 1975 , a postcard , with an Eisenhower stamp, was sent to North Queensland urging a couple of apparent tobacco growers to put in a crop and come over to America for a holiday.
The friendly Melanesians in the Solomon Islands impressed another Australian traveller who visited the Betikama 7th Day Adventist High School , on the outskirts of Honiara , to see pupils wood carving in the native tradition and playing " beautiful" music in a band which used bamboo instruments.
Eating Vegemite and toast in a hostel, looking out on the grand scenery at Whistler, Canada , after an overnight snowfall , in October 1993 , a traveller said there were so many other Australians about he wondered who was left at home .
Charlie Chaplin , Queen Elizabeth, the Pope and American architect and designer Frank Lloyd Wright feature in the many postage stamps of interest in the collection. Of course, Disneyland was a popular destination, Winnie the Pooh and Tigger shown mixing with the public in Adventureland .
