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Maritime Houseflags B (Australia)

Australia

Broken Hill Proprietary Co.
Burns, Philp & Company

See also:

Broken Hill Proprietary Co.

image by Jarig Bakker, 7 Aug 2004

From the link provided by Barbara Tomlinson of The National Maritime Museum http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/:

The house flag of The Broken Hill Proprietary Co. Ltd, Melbourne. A rectangular flag divided diagonally into red and blue by a white stripe from top right to bottom left. Inscribed on the stripe is 'B. H. P.' The flag is made of a wool and synthetic fibre bunting. It has a cotton hoist and is machine sewn. A rope and toggle is attached.

The Broken Hill Proprietary Co. Ltd was a major conglomerate based in Melbourne whose principal interest was mining. It entered shipowning in 1927. The company has now merged with Billiton Ltd and is known as BHP Billiton Ltd.

Jarig Bakker, 7 Aug 2004

In recent years BHP have actually used a logo on a blank background.
Miles Li, 7 Aug 2004

The ships used to also fly a stem jack in port being blue with a red oval bearing a white diagonal band charged with the black letters "BHP". As Miles advises BHP subsequently used a logo on a white field beginning in 1985 with the logo being based on the letters "b", "h" and "p" and also having a loose resemblance to the shape of Australia being coloured charcoal blue and turquoise blue with the charcoal being standard but the divisions of the company varying the other colour. In 1994 the logos of the group were standardized to one of dark charcoal. In 2001 BHP Billiton announced a new logo which presumably will have resulted in a new flag.
Neale Rosanoski, 4 August 2005

Burns, Philp & Company

image by Jarig Bakker, 17 Jan 2005

Burns, Philp & Company, Limited, Sydney: A vertical slanting triband Red White Blue; on the white band a green device (a thistle?).
Source: Brown's Flags and Funnels of British and Foreign Steamship Companies [wed26].
Jarig Bakker, 17 Jan 2005

The design is a thistle. The Brown series from 1943 and the post WW2 editions of Stewart all show the bands as vertical but Australian nautical sources do not note any change so they seem to have got it wrong.
Neale Rosanoski, 4 August 2005