Behind the Wall – Australian Note and Stamp Printing Department

Have you ever walked or driven past the high brick wall on the corner of Victoria Parade and Young Street, Fitzroy, and wondered what’s behind it? Now part of the Australian Catholic University, this building was once the Commonwealth Note and Stamp Printing Department. Every Australian stamp and banknote was printed here from 1924-81.

The Commonwealth Note and Stamp Printing Department was the first purpose-built facility for printing notes and stamps in Melbourne. Designed with world-class security, spikes topped the perimeter wall and steel bars covered each window. A large vault for storing banknotes and stamps and strong rooms kept the valuable products safe from burglary and fire.

Inside, the department was a hum of activity. A reporter in 1951 described the building trembling ‘to the sound of 30 printing presses’ all operating at once. Each press could print an incredible £360,000 worth of £10 notes per hour! It was a place of creativity, too. Pioneering designers and engravers, including Betty Temple Watts, Eileen Mayo, Frank Davis Manley and RA Harrison, all developed iconic Australian stamps here.

Today, the building is still lively but much more welcoming to the community as part of the Australian Catholic University’s Mary Glowrey Building.

Victoria Parade, Fitzroy, from Young Street to Napier Street - north side, 1970-74
Committee for Urban Action (Melbourne, Vic.), State Library Victoria

Interpretive wall at the Australian Catholic University’s Mary Glowrey Building
Design © SHP (Sue Hodges Productions Pty Ltd), 2023. Australian stamps by Betty Temple Watts reproduced courtesy Australia Post.

Miss Eileen Mayo, stamp designer, [animal designs], Neutral Bay, 4 August 1959 
Cec Lynch, State Library of New South Wales

Mr Frank Manley, engraver of the Australian Note and Stamp Printing Branch, at work on the die of Australia's new one pound note design, 1945
Cliff Bottomley, National Archives of Australia