First Issues - Oceania

First Issues
Oceania

Australia, 1989

honecards were introduced into Australia in late 1989 when an engineering field trial was conducted in Geelong, Victoria by Telecom Australia. Two sets of 3 cards each had been issued on the occasion, and 50,000 of each card were printed.


Fiji, 1992

he charming cards issued by Fiji
are well known and sought after by world-wide collectors for their beauty and low mintage. The first ones which were supplied by GPT formed a set of four pictorial cards, plus a complimentary, shown at right. GPT cards are still in use and several sets have been issued since then.


Kiribati, 1999

iribati is an independent republic which comprises the Gilbert, Phoenix and Line groups of islands straddling the equator and the International Date Line, about one-half of the way from Hawaii to Australia. A public phone system based on chip cards was introduced recently, and the first cards issued are a set of 4 showing pictures of inhabitants in traditional dresses.


Micronesia, 1993

agnetic cards are supplied to FSMTC by Tamura of Japan. The first issue was a puzzle set of 4 depicting the flags of the four FSM States, and a big rainbow among them.


New Zealand, 1989

aving decided on the GPT system of cards and cardphones Telecom New Zealand began trialing the system in early May 1989, inside two military installations near Christchurch.
Five cards, with values of $2, $5, $10, $20 and $50 were produced especially for the trial, and each card had the same design showing a colour photograph of the Chief Post Office in Christchurch. As all the cards that were not sold, or used by technicians, were officially destroyed, the quantities really distributed were as follows: $2: 11,021; $5: 7,254; $10: 5,775; $20: 2,576; $50: 863.


North Mariana Islands, 1990

ot to be confused wirth Federated States of Micronesia, the North Mariana Islands (also known as Saipan by the name of the largest island) signed a 'Commonwealth agreement' with the USA in 1986 whereby they fall under the protection of the USA and their people have US citizienship and other rights. Magnetic cards by japanese Tamura are issued by MTC, a subsidiary of GTE Hawaii, and the first one was a white card issued by GTE, with a self-adhesive label applied on it, advertising 1990 Micronesian Games. A low quantity have been issued so the card is quite rare.


Pitcairn Island, 1998

amous for the Mutiny on the Bounty event, Pitcairn is actually inhabited by about 50 people, all discendents of the few Pitcairners who decided to stay here when the entire colony founded by Fletcher Christian (186 people) moved to Norfolk Island. These are the first phonecards issued there, and they can be used not only to phone but to fax too. They are magstripe-type cards, four values ($5, 10, 20 and 50) and there are 1,000 for each value except for the $5 which are 2,000.


Tokelau, 1997

his small territory of New Zealand with a population of about 1,500 inhabitants has issued their own phonecards, the first ones are a set of two values, $5 and $20, manufactured by Anritsu of Japan.


Vanuatu, 1993

elecom Vanuatu has already issued several cards, most of them being pictorial cards, but the first to be issued were a set of three, plain white with Telecom's logo, with values of 30, 60 and 120 units. They were chip card manufactured by Schlumberger, and the chip, SI5, was still in AFNOR position.