The Philatelic Society of Canberra is one of Australia’s most active philatelic societies who celebrated 75 years of operation in November 2007. The next celebration will be Canberra Stampshow 2020 at the Hellenic Club Woden in Canberra (13-15 March 2020). This 21st National Philatelic Convention will be a celebration of Pacific Exploration, including the 250th anniversary of James Cook voyage to the Pacific, including his visit to New Zealand and the Eastern Coast of Australia. This exhibition in March will only be a half national exhibition – the other half will be in August in Newcastle.
In 2018 the Philatelic Society of Canberra staged the Canberra Stamp Show 2018 (16-18 March 2018) – the 20th Biennial Exhibition. The main theme for that exhibition was the celebration of nursing in Australia, but also the centenary of World War I. There were 70 entries including 54 national level exhibits with 4 large gold and 8 gold medals awarded in the national classes. Only two thematic philately exhibits, but 15 exhibits were shown in open philately!
Also some topical class exhibits were shown here as an experimental national class. This class seeks to provide collectors with the opportunity to exhibit material by topic or subject with the items in the exhibit connected by the subject shown and not by a thematic theme or a traditional country treatment. Examples of a topical class exhibit could include birds vehicles or scientists on stamps. The difference between thematic philately and the topical class is that a topical class exhibit would show only philatelic items depicting the subject while a thematic exhibit would have a theme which would allow the inclusion of philatelic items related to the theme. There were two topical exhibits with another two exhibits transferred to topical from open and thematics. (APF News July 2018)
Exhibition Results 2018
| Thematic Philately | ||
| Wendy Buckle | Paper Past and Present | 81% (LV) |
| Anne Stammers | Rocks to Riches | 77% (V) |
