It’s not often an auto brand marks 100 years of operations, let alone one in Australia, so to help commemorate the milestone Australia Post has released the limited-edition Ford Australia Centenary Stamp Collection.
Ford Australia kicked off its 2025 centenary celebrations with a big birthday bash in April, and now fans of the Blue Oval can get in on the action for the princely sum of just $1.70 – the face value of all four special-edition postage stamps now available.
The quartet of limited-edition stamps immortalises four of the most iconic Ford models produced in Australia over the last century since 1925, including the Model T, the XP Falcon, the XA Falcon GT, and the FG X Falcon XR8.
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The Model T was the first Ford produced at the Blue Oval’s then-new Australian factory in Geelong, Victoria, in 1925. As it had been in the US and several other countries for 17 years prior to that, the Model T is widely credited with bringing affordable motoring to the masses.
However, it was the Falcon for which Ford Australia was best known, and three of the most famous examples are the pioneering XP, the homegrown XA and the swansong FG X.
The first Falcon made and sold in Australia was the XK series, which was introduced in September 1960 in an attempt to challenge the dominance of cheaper homegrown Holdens starting with the 48-215 ‘FX’ of 1948.
Prior to the Falcon, Ford Australia had assembled the British Zephyr and its Consul and Zodiac derivatives, which were more expensive than the equivalent Holden due to import tariffs on components, while the Canadian-sourced Ford V8 models of the time were even pricier.
But the American-designed XK Falcon was quickly struck down by reliability issues in Australia’s harsher road conditions, so a series of upgrades were quickly developed and implemented, and after the mildly improved XL and XM models the end result was the XP Falcon of 1965.
The XP became an Aussie icon of the late 1960s after making headlines by completing a gruelling 112,000km (70,000-mile), nine-day durability test at Ford Australia’s freshly-minted You Yangs proving ground near Geelong, which continues to lead the global development of the Ranger ute and Everest SUV.
It was the first Australian car to win the Wheels Car of the Year award and a total of 70,998 XP Falcons rolled off Ford production lines in Melbourne and Brisbane over 1965-1966.
The XA Falcon then became the first fully Australian-designed and built Falcon in 1972, following the US-based first- and second-generation models, and the XA Falcon GT went on to become a cornerstone in the Falcon’s 56-year legacy.
The Falcon GT lodged back-to-back Bathurst 1000 wins in 1973 and 1974 in 351 cubic-inch Cleveland V8-powered two-door ‘hardtop’ form, the ‘coke-bottle’ design of which became a poster child of Australian muscle car culture in the 1970s and led to the iconic XB and XC models.
And while the FG X Falcon XR8 was the final and finest V8-powered Falcon to roll off the Broadmeadows assembly line, borrowing heavily from the discontinued FG FPV GT, an FG X Falcon XR6 sedan and Territory SUV were actually the last two Ford vehicles produced in Australia.
That happened on October 7, 2016 at Ford’s Broadmeadows assembly plant in Melbourne, where a total of 4,356,628 vehicles were manufactured over more than 91 years since August 20, 1959.
In all, Ford produced 3,578,689 Falcon sedans, wagons, utes and panel vans over more than 56 years of production between June 1960 and October 2016, making Falcon the longest-running automotive nameplate in Australia – and one of world’s most enduring model names.
The Falcon was Australia’s top-selling vehicle in its heyday, with 89,679 examples of the EF and EL Falcon sedan, ute and van sold in 1995 – its best year.
All four of the stamps were designed by Sharon Rodziewicz at the Australia Post Design Studio and rendered by Peter Hughes – who ironically headed up General Motors’ Australian design studio for more than two decades – of Hughes Motorsport Art.
“As we celebrate Ford Australia’s Centenary, we’re excited to collaborate with Australia Post to commemorate four notable models from the past 100 years,” said Ford Australia and New Zealand president and CEO, Andrew Birkic.
“We’re honoured that Ford has found a place in the lives of so many Australians through the decades, and this new collectable stamp range is a keepsake for all fans that bleed blue.
“As we look to the next 100 years, these four models are a reminder of our roots, and how Australian motoring continues to evolve.”
The limited-edition centenary stamp collection are available at Australia Post outlets and online from today (September 2), just in time for Father’s Day.
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