Flags of the Australian Defence Force
These include flags, standards, guidons and banners and that denote rank, appointment, corps, formations, regiments, training units and sub-units.
[4] The special personages deserving of compliments and automatically entitled to a personal flag include the monarch, other members of the royal family, the governor-general, state governors, territory administrators, ranking service officers and the minister for defence.
It was presented by Governor General Field Marshal Slim during a parade involving squadrons from the 1st Armoured Regiment, 1st/15th Royal New South Wales Lancers and the 8th/13th Victorian Mounted Rifles at Puckapunyal on 15 June 1957.
[14] The order of precedence for Royal Australian Infantry Corps regiments is as follows: The pre-federation colonial navies flew British blue ensigns defaced with the relevant local badge.
[17] Following the formation of the Royal Australian Navy, on 5 October 1911, Naval Order 78/1911 directed all vessels to fly the British White Ensign on the stern and the flag of Australia on the Jackstaff.
[18] Prior to this time, it was not unknown for RAN captains to fly the Australian flag from the foremast of single-masted ships and the mainmast of two-masted ships as the battle flag when at action stations instead of the Royal Navy white ensign as happened at the battle of the Cocos between HMAS Sydney and the German cruiser SMS Emden.
[29] The Australian flag was associated with an act of war for the first recorded time as it flew above the fort at Queenscliff in Victoria, which opened fire to prevent the German steamer Pfalz from leaving port on 6 August 1914.
[34][35] In 1918, as the 2nd Division entered the Belgian town of Charleroi, the locals turned out to greet them waving Australian flags made out of brown paper bags.
[41] There has since been a commemorative plaque laid at Lae with the inscription reading: "Here on 16th September 1943 the Australian National Flag was raised by Commander 25th Aust.
"[43] It was also reported on 8 May 1945 in the Melbourne Argus under the headline "AUSTRALIANS CAPTURE TARAKAN AIRSTRIP: Victorian Battalion in Thick of Fight" that, after using tanks as mobile artillery in a struggle that lasted over five days: That night the troops who had won the air strip enjoyed their first night's unbroken rest since they landed on the island at dawn on Tuesday.
They forgot their weariness, their sweat-sodden clothes, and unshaven faces, in the cheer they gave as they watched the Australian flag and their own battalion emblem being hoisted over the strip.
VETERANS of the 9th Division fly an Australian flag on Tarakan Island (Borneo) on which, today's cables say, they have achieved their objectives.
Brodie OC of the Australian Visitors and Observers Section over a dwelling that had previously been occupied by the Mongolian Embassy to North Korea.
Control" and "Australian flag over base" appeared in a Sydney Morning Herald report dated 23 March 1968 stating that task force troops Lance Corporal David Halliday and Private John Scott had "wedged the Australian flag in a clump of rocks on Hill 323 in the middle of an abandoned Vietcong supply base.
"[52] At the 1965 memorial for Kevin "Dasher" Wheatley, after making his last stand in the Vietnam war that earned him a posthumously awarded Victoria Cross, a South Vietnamese officer would pin a valour medal to the Australian flag covering his casket upon which was placed a wreath.
[55] In 1802, there was an incident where the third governor of New South Wales, Philip Gidley King (1758–1808), ordered Lieutenant Charles Robbins, RN, to set out from Sydney in a tiny armed schooner, the Cumberland, with a crew of seventeen in search of a French surveying expedition.
As the naturalists were busy collecting insect and plant samples, Robbins landed, and his party marched to the back of the French camp.
He then posted three men in front of a tree who, upon the Union Jack being raised, fired three volleys and gave three cheers before it was audibly announced that the island was a possession of His Majesty King George III.
It appears the first such ceremony took place on 20 June 1855 at the Sydney Domain, involving a flag or banner rather than colours being presented to the Volunteer Force of New South Wales.
The Imperial government acknowledged this service by issuing a number of colours, also known as honourable insignia or King's banners, being Union Jacks made of silk.
Maitland has noted that "postcards were hugely used during the Great World War and often displayed Australia's National Flag"[27] with the Polygon Wood scene by Alfred Pearse sold to raise money for the Australian Comforts Fund.
"[34] The event was reenacted at an Australian National Flag Day eve ceremony held in Martin Place, Sydney.
