Last modified: 2005-09-02 by jonathan dixon
Keywords: australia | western australia | swan (black) | blue ensign |
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![[Western Australia Flag]](../images/a/au-wa.gif)
image by Jorge Candeias
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The Western Australian state flag was created as a colonial flag - a British Blue Ensign with the badge of the colony added to the blue field. In Australia, Western Australia's badge [a black swan on a yellow background] was the only design intended to clearly symbolise the colony. WA was originally called the Swan River Settlement and the black swan found upon the river had become recognised as representing the Colony.
Ralph Kelly, 19 September 1999
W. Smith says that Western Australia uses more then one variation of the flag, but shows only one: a 'blue duster' with black swan in yellow disk, but they are just different artistic renditions of the black swan.
Brendan Jones, 19 March 1996
The black swan is the official bird emblem of Western Australia. It is described as follows in the Australian Fauna website:
"Black Swan (Cygnus atratus)1 Australian swans are the only non-white swans in the world.
European explorers were amazed (Vlaming in 1697) to discover that in Australia swans are black1. They are common birds across all of coastal Australia, and nest in swamps or river estuaries. They are not common in the North West. They make their nests out of coarse reed stems on a dry bit of a small island, or on a river bank. They lay a clutch of about five eggs which are greenish white in colour, usually in autumn (March-April) or in winter. They can travel in enormous flocks and move from one feeding ground to another. They will feed in the shallows, or eat grass on the banks. They are not popular with farmers. Swans are a protected species in Australia."
Western Australia State Governor used the defaced Union Flag. It changed to a defaced Blue Ensign in 1988. I don't know what the ensign defacements are.
David Prothero, 24 February 1997
The Western Australian State Governor's flag was changed to a slight variation of the State Flag, with the addition of the St. Edward's Crown above the fly badge on 12 April 1988, after three other states had made a similar change.
Ralph Bartlett, 4 August 2004
The Western Australian State Governor's flag changed around 1989 from the
defaced Union Jack with the Black Swan emblem, to the current state flag
with the crown placed above the black swan. I was a police officer for many years and spent many mornings hoisting the
Governors flag over Government House, Perth. The then Governor decided that
the old design was to similar to the Union Flag and caused confusion.
Chris Donnelly, 8 August 2004
See also: State Governors' flags
This flag came about by a campaign lead by The Dominion League and a successful referendum in Western Australia (April 1933) for the State to leave the Commonwealth of Australia and return to Britain as a directly governed territory. Despite the success of the referendum, the W.A. government of the day never enacted the result because neither King George V or his government were interested in reaquiring this former colony. The design consists of a Black Swan (facing the fly) on a Yellow Disc surrounded with a Black Ring, all centred on a British Union Flag.
Ralph Bartlett, 4 January 2001