geography Archives - Page 28 of 37

Victoria

Flags / Australia, Australian States, flags, geography, history, islands, pacific ocean, Pacific Ocean Islands, states

The flag of Victoria, symbolising the state of Victoria in Australia, is a British Blue Ensign defaced by the state badge of Victoria in the fly. The badge is the Southern Cross topped by an imperial crown, which is currently the St Edward’s Crown. The stars of the Southern Cross are white and range from five to eight points with each star having one point pointing to the top of the flag. The flag dates from 1870, with minor variations, the last of which was in 1953. It is the only Australian state flag not to feature the state badge on a round disk.

The first flag of Victoria was adopted in 1870 .and was first flown from HMVS Nelson on 9 February 1870. It too was a defaced British Blue Ensign with the Southern Cross located in the fly. The stars of the Southern Cross were white and had 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 points with only the leftmost and rightmost stars having one point pointing to the top of the flag. The adoption of the flag came about when Victoria became the first Australian colony to acquire a warship, and thus under the British Colonial Naval Defence Act of 1865 Victoria needed a flag to distinguish its ships from other British ships.

Victoria then adopted the current flag in 1877 with the stars of the southern cross from then on having 5, 6, 7, 7 and 8 points. The depictions of the crown have varied in accordance with heraldic fashion and the wishes of the monarch of the time. During Queen Victoria’s reign, the crown had slightly dipped arches. From c. 1901–1952, during the reigns of Kings Edward VII, George V, Edward VIII and George VI the depiction of the crown known as the “Tudor Crown”, with domed arches, was used. In 1953 the Tudor Crown was replaced with the St Edward’s Crown.

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Tasmania

Flags / Australia, Australian States, flags, geography, history, indian ocean, islands, pacific ocean, states

The current state flag of Tasmania was officially adopted following a proclamation by Tasmanian colonial Governor Sir Frederick Weld on 25 September 1876, and was first published in the Tasmanian Gazette the same day. The governor’s proclamation here were three official flags, they being the Governor’s flag, the Tasmania Government vessel flag, and a Tasmania merchant flag. Up until 1856 when Tasmania was granted responsible self-government, the Union flag and the British ensign were primarily used on state occasions.

The flag consists of a defaced British Blue Ensign with the state badge located in the fly. The badge is a white disk with a red lion passant in the centre of the disk. There is no official record of how the lion came to be included on the flag. Where this design originated from is unknown, but it is assumed that the red lion is a link with England. This flag has remained almost unchanged since 1875, with only a slight change of the style of the lion when the flag was officially adopted by the government in 1975.

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South Australia

Flags / Australia, Australian States, flags, geography, history, indian ocean, islands

The current state flag of South Australia, was officially adopted by the government of South Australia in 1904.

The flag is based on the defaced British Blue Ensign with the state badge located in the fly. The badge is a gold disc featuring a piping shrike with its wings outstretched. The badge is believed to have been originally designed by Robert Craig, a teacher at the School of Arts in Adelaide, and officially gazetted on 14 January 1904.

The first flag of South Australia was adopted in 1870. It too was a defaced British Blue Ensign, but with a black disc in the fly containing the Southern Cross and the two pointers (Alpha and Beta Centauri).

South Australia then adopted a second flag in 1876, also a Blue Ensign, with a new badge. The badge design was an artistic rendition of the arrival of Britannia (a woman in flowing garb and holding a shield, representing the new settlers) meeting an Aboriginal sitting with a spear on a rocky shoreline. A kangaroo appears to be carved into the rocks behind the Aboriginal. This flag was adopted after a request from the Colonial Office for a new design over the old one due to its similarity to the flags of New Zealand and Victoria.

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Queensland

Flags / Australia, Australian States, flags, geography, history, islands, pacific ocean, states

The state flag of Queensland is a British Blue Ensign defaced with the state badge on a white disc in the fly. The badge is a light blue Maltese Cross with an imperial crown in the centre of the cross. The flag dates from 1876, with minor variations, and the badge was designed by William Hemmant, the Colonial Secretary and Treasurer of Queensland in 1876.

On 10 December 1859, “a light blue flag with a red St George’s Cross and union in the corner” (now known as the Queensland Separation Flag) was flown in Brisbane to mark Queensland’s separation from New South Wales.

The State Flag was first created in 1870 with the Union Jack upon the royal blue background; however, no Badge was present. In its place was a profile of Queen Victoria on a blue disc surrounded by a white annulus on which the word “Queensland” was inscribed in gold.

The next alteration occurred in 1876 as there were many complaints that the reproduction of Victoria’s head was too difficult and a replacement was called for. The Maltese Cross impaled with the Crown was chosen out of four proposed designs to replace Victoria’s head.

The final official alteration occurred in 1901 with the death of Queen Victoria. The change was in relation to the crown impaled upon the Maltese Cross; as Victoria and Edward VII had chosen different coronation crowns, the crowns upon the Badge also had to change. However over the years the monarchs of Australia have chosen differing coronation crowns and therefore, the crowns have unofficially kept up with each change.

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New South Wales

Flags / Australia, economy, flags, geography, history, indian ocean, islands, pacific ocean, states, transportation

The current state flag of New South Wales was officially adopted by the government of New South Wales in 1876.

The flag is based on the defaced British Blue Ensign with the state badge located in the fly. The badge, based on the coat of arms, is a white disc with the cross of St George, a golden lion passant guardant in the centre of the cross and an eight-pointed gold star on each arm of the cross.

This flag was adopted due to criticisms from the British Admiralty that the previous design was too similar to the design of the Victorian flag.

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Australia

Flags / Australia, flags, geography, history, indian ocean, pacific ocean, states

The flag of Australia is a defaced Blue Ensign: a blue field with the Union Jack in the canton (upper hoist quarter), and a large white seven-pointed star known as the Commonwealth Star in the lower hoist quarter. The fly contains a representation of the Southern Cross constellation, made up of five white stars – one small five-pointed star and four, larger, seven-pointed stars. There are other official flags representing Australia, its people and core functions of government.

The flag’s original design (with a six-pointed Commonwealth Star) was chosen in 1901 from entries in a competition held following Federation, and was first flown in Melbourne on 3 September 1901, the date proclaimed as Australian National Flag Day. A slightly different design was approved by King Edward VII in 1903. The seven-pointed commonwealth star version was introduced by a proclamation dated 8 December 1908. The dimensions were formally gazetted in 1934, and in 1954 the flag became recognized by, and legally defined in, the Flags Act 1953, as the “Australian National Flag”.

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Armenia

Flags / europe, flags, geography, history

The national flag of Armenia, the Armenian Tricolour, consists of three horizontal bands of equal width, red on the top, blue in the middle, and orange (also described as “colour of apricot”) on the bottom. The Armenian Supreme Soviet adopted the current flag on 24 August 1990. On 15 June 2006, the Law on the National Flag of Armenia, governing its usage, was passed by the National Assembly of Armenia.

Throughout history, there have been many variations of the Armenian flag. In ancient times, Armenian dynasties were represented by different symbolic animals displayed on their flags. In the twentieth century, various Soviet flags represented the Armenian SSR.

The meanings of the colors are interpreted in many different ways. For example, red stands for the blood of the 1.5 million Armenians killed in the Armenian Genocide, blue is for the Armenian pure sky, and orange represents the country’s courage.

The official definition of the colors, as stated in the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, is:

The red emblematizes the Armenian Highland, the Armenian people’s continued struggle for survival, maintenance of the Christian faith, Armenia’s independence and freedom. The blue emblematizes the will of the people of Armenia to live beneath peaceful skies. The orange emblematizes the creative talent and hard-working nature of the people of Armenia.

Today’s tricolor flag bears little resemblance to the earliest Armenian ‘flags’. In ancient times, armies went into battle behind carvings mounted on poles. The carvings might represent a dragon, an eagle, a lion or “some mysterious object of the gods”. With the advent of Christianity, the Armenian empire adopted many different flags representing various dynasties. The Artaxiad Dynasty’s flag, for instance, consisted of a red cloth displaying two eagles gazing at each other, separated by a flower.

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Argentina

Flags / flags, geography, history, social/political, south america, Spanish language

The sun is called the Sun of May because it is a replica of an engraving on the first Argentine coin, approved in 1813, whose value was eight escudos (one Spanish dollar). It has 16 straight and 16 waved sunbeams.
In 1978 the sun color was specified to be golden yellow (amarillo oro), to have an inner diameter of 10 cm, and an outer diameter of 25 cm (the diameter of the sun equals 5⁄6 the height of the white stripe. The sun’s face is 2⁄5 of its height). It features 32 rays, alternately wavy and straight, and from 1978 it must be embroidered in the “Official Flag Ceremony”.

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Antigua and Barbuda

Flags / caribbean, flags, geography, history, islands

Antigua and Barbuda is a country in the West Indies in the Americas, lying between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It consists of two major islands, Antigua and Barbuda, and a number of smaller islands (including Great Bird, Green, Guiana, Long, Maiden and York Islands and further south, the island of Redonda). The permanent population numbers about 81,800 (at the 2011 Census) and the capital and largest port and city is St. John’s on Antigua. Lying near each other (the main Barbuda airport is less than 30 nautical miles north of the main Antigua airport), Antigua and Barbuda are in the middle of the Leeward Islands, part of the Lesser Antilles.

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