Flag to fly high for 115th birthday
Date published: 1 September 2016
Townsville residents are invited to help celebrate our flag’s 115th birthday in the CBD for Australian National Flag Day.
The Australian flag was first flown on September 3, 1901; and the day is now celebrated with a range of ceremonies and events around the nation.
In Townsville the ceremony will be held at the flagpole on Flinders St on Sunday, September 4 at 10am.
Residents, community groups, service clubs and serving and former defence force personnel will be in attendance.
Deputy Mayor Les Walker said Townsville held a special place in the history of the national flag.
“The significance of our Flinders St flagpole is that it is the location of the first vice-regal raising of the then newly designed Australian flag by Australia’s first Governor General The Earl of Hopetoun in 1901,” Cr Walker said.
“Our flag has a unique story - it is the only flag to fly over an entire continent, and the first in history to be chosen in an open public competition.
“In fact the ‘flag design competition’ following federation, attracted entries from nearly 1% of the population at that time, and five people tied for the honour of designing our flag.”
Those who can’t attend the ceremony are invited to fly or display our flag, wear a flag badge or pin, or even just take the chance to learn more about its history.
“We’re all proud of our country and it is on days such as “Flag Day” that we can show it,” Cr Walker said.
For details about our flag go to www.australianflag.org.au.
Background:
In Townsville on September 16, 1901, Australia’s first Governor-General, Lord Hopetoun, raised a locally made copy of the flag.
Lord Hopetoun was on a goodwill tour of Northern Australia and accepted an invitation to officially open Townsville’s Town Hall.
When Lord Hopetoun arrived, he was impressed to see that the city already had a flag. (Just that month in Melbourne, his wife, Lady Hopetoun, had opened a display of entries in the National Flag Competition.)
The Townsville flag was professionally made by a local flagmaker and sailmaker, William McKenzie. McKenzie had taken a keen interest in the flag competition.
It is not known if he asked a friend in Melbourne to telegraph a description of the winning flag or if he used a photograph published in the North Queensland Herald as a model for his flag. Regardless, he produced a quality copy of the ‘first flag of the Commonwealth’.
McKenzie was already engaged by Townsville City Council to prepare bunting for the Vice Regal visit. He wrote to the Council and offered the flag as a gift, suggesting that it be raised by Lord Hopetoun during the opening ceremony.
McKenzie’s offer was accepted – and Townsville earned itself a place in history as the venue for the first Vice-Regal ceremonial unfurling of Australia’s national flag.
