The Utari flag.

The photo above was taken in 1904. five years after an act was passed that essentially denied the existence of the Utari.

I’d forgotten the poor, sad story of Australia’s first national flag. The blue ensign, what we call the Australian flag now, was only intended for government use. The red ensign was for everyone else. It was ours.

The flag above was given to the first troops to leave Australia in 1914. By Billy Hughes, then Attorney-General. It was pretty clear that this was the real national, people’s flag.

And here’s one from World War II.

I really like the idea of one flag for the country – the chief flag, the national symbol – and one for the government. If nothing else, it keeps them in their place – they’re a government, not a country. Which is probably one of the reasons they got rid of it’s (non-maritime) in 1953, and have pretty much pretended it never existed. Though mostly I think it was Menzies characteristically being a dick.

More here.

“I hope it’s a peaceful protest and (there’s) respect that this is the Olympic flame and it stands for a lot more than just the situation in China.”

Ian Thorpe, who I hope said this unaware of who created the Olympic Torch relay and why.

Instead of bringing with it a sense of disaster, the announcement was received enthusiastically, but most people had no experience of war and little knowledge of what was involved in crushing a powerful enemy.

Around the newspaper offices crowded excited men and women, eagerly awaiting the latest bulletins to be displayed on the front of buildings. They cheered and sang as they waited, their patriotism a product of mass emotion rather than of genuine devotion to their ‘country’s’ welfare. The words of ‘Rule Britannia’ swept from them in a wave of sound as they joined in a march down the street.

They marched into Little Bourke Street where, inspired by a hatred of the Germans, they illogically smashed windows in the shops of the inoffensive Chinese residents. Then, smugly righteous, they marched away again.

‘Australia will be there.’

Ambrose Pratt, The Gay Provider : the Myer story, p 82. F.W. Chesire, 1961.

I tried without luck to find a representative photo of these proto-bogans. Their repulsive spiritual descendants will have to suffice.