# The Australian Flag...should it be changed?



## CeeCee (Jan 25, 2014)

I know absolutely nothing about your politics, so I hope I am not offending anyone with this post!

Maybe I'll learn something from your replies.


http://www.buzzfeed.com/simoncrerar/alternative-australian-flags-minus-union-jack


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## Davey Jones (Jan 25, 2014)

Truthfully I think the Australian flag looks a hellova lot better then the British flag.
But thats me.....


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## Vivjen (Jan 25, 2014)

Careful.....ours came first!


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## Diwundrin (Jan 25, 2014)

We all make a song and dance about changing it every year around this time but no one ever does, we just argue about it.  No biggie.

It looks too much like the NZ flag and I think we're hoping they'll change theirs first and save us the trouble.


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## SifuPhil (Jan 25, 2014)




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## Vivjen (Jan 25, 2014)

I prefer Phil's!


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## That Guy (Jan 25, 2014)

[h=2]Should Australia “Get That Jack Off My Flag”?[/h]At first I thought WTF but now thinking it's an interesting idea.  Don't like any of the alternative choices offered, though . . .  except for Phil's of course.


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## Jillaroo (Jan 25, 2014)

_*Emu Phil *_


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## Fern (Jan 25, 2014)

Diwundrin said:


> We all make a song and dance about changing it every year around this time but no one ever does, we just argue about it.  No biggie.
> 
> It looks too much like the NZ flag and I think we're hoping they'll change theirs first and save us the trouble.


Ditto, but really they are too much the same.We'll talk about it again this Waitangi Day, another controversial subject.


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## Davey Jones (Jan 25, 2014)

CeeCee said:


> I didn't know that...this is the first forum that I'm on with so many Australians...think Rainee is the only one I knew before.


 Maybe we need more New Zealanders on here,is that spelled right?


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## Fern (Jan 25, 2014)

Davey Jones said:


> Maybe we need more New Zealanders on here,is that spelled right?


Yep; more NZers would give the Aussies a run for their money.:wink-new:


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## dbeyat45 (Jan 25, 2014)

Phil, sorry mate but that's a fail on the flag .... not enough stars, not enough dangerous creatures.  Shame, really .... the basic idea was good.

:wink:


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## SifuPhil (Jan 25, 2014)

dbeyat45 said:


> Phil, sorry mate but that's a fail on the flag .... not enough stars, not enough dangerous creatures.  Shame, really .... the basic idea was good.



If I were to include all of your dangerous creatures you'd up flying a _quilt_, not a flag! layful:


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## dbeyat45 (Jan 25, 2014)

SifuPhil said:


> If I were to include all of your dangerous creatures you'd up flying a _quilt_, not a flag! layful:



If you do a re-design, here's one to include:







http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-09/chopper-read-dies/5012244


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## Diwundrin (Jan 25, 2014)

> FERN:   Yep; more NZers would give the Aussies a run for their money.:wink-new:



Just what we need, more Kiwis. 

 
 I know a few from other forums but won't be steering them here, they're a bit forthrightly fiery for decorous company.



You came in late CeeCee, we did a crash course on OZ when we 'invaded' the forum.  
Fern is sole flagbearer for NZ ... The Shaky Isles to Aussies,  Aotearoa 'Land of the Long White Cloud' among themselves. 

Politically we're scarily similar. Historically, locally very different, but on global terms also very similar.  OZ and NZ are totally separate, but 'sibling' countries with the friendly rivalry that goes with that.  Other than them having funny 'iccents' our populations blend unnoticeably.  Much as Canada and the US are set up.

We battle each other verbally always, in jest,  but stand together when times demand it.  Our 'Veterans' Day' is ANZAC Day. Australian and New Zealand Army Corp.  We were, and are, always brothers in arms. We don't separate the Nations in remembering veterans.

Geologically you couldn't find two more opposite Countries.  We are big dry and flat as a tack.  They are small, wet and pointy all over.  We go there when we feel the need to remember what a mountain looks like and they come here to dry out.

NZ is a 'new' volcanic pop up geologically, Australia is the oldest still recognizable landform on the planet.
 
There endeth lesson one.  Ask Phil about the weird stuff, he can tell you about the Drop Bears, he's getting good at working us out.


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## Diwundrin (Jan 25, 2014)

Thanks DB, anyone else kind of missing Chopper yet??  He was 'interesting' if nothing else.   And hey, he only offed the other baddies, like Dexter.
He was also very funny in a creepy way.  I almost liked the bloke.


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## Warrigal (Jan 25, 2014)

CeeCee said:


> You crack me up Phil, you are a master of photoshopping!
> 
> Where's the kangaroo though?



And the spider ?


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## SifuPhil (Jan 25, 2014)

dbeyat45 said:


> If you do a re-design, here's one to include:



You guys _still_ make heroes out of sociopaths, huh? We've kind of moved on from that ... layful:



Diwundrin said:


> ...  We are big dry and flat as a tack.  They are small, wet and pointy all over.



Sounds like my third and fourth wives, respectively. 



> There endeth lesson one.  Ask Phil about the weird stuff, he can tell you about the Drop Bears, he's getting good at working us out.



DROP BEARS! 

Ah, yes, the inimitable drop bears! I'm currently writing the third draft of what I believe will become the definitive treatise on drop bears.

The working title is "*Death From Above: Strategies and Tactics of Australia's Drop Bears*".




Warrigal said:


> And the spider ?



Hmmm ... I see I'm going to have to make one BIG flag in order to fit all this stuff on there. How about I just have a regular-sized flag with a star for each deadly beast?


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## Diwundrin (Jan 25, 2014)

It's the colour thing that cheeses me off.  What the hell colours are we supposed to be represented by?  The flag is red white and blue and the Olympic and international teams are rigged in Green and Yellow (Gold? I don't think soooo.)  We look the same as NZ on a flag and the same as Jamaica in the Olympics.  
Just to confuse it more,  Australia's original colours were blue and yellow.  Where the hell did the green come from? 
 And the original Australian flag had a red field, not a blue one!  What's wrong with just going back to that?  It's still legitimate to my knowledge, and they were interchangeable when I was a kid and there's still an old red one in a box somewhere that I was sent out to wave at something once.

All the people who wax patriotic about not changing it because "It was the flag the ANZACs fought under." are historically confused.  They fought under the red one in WWI not the blue one we have now.  

But I'm up for argument about the above because I can't be bothered checking it.  Just going on what trivia I've picked up about it. So history buffs go for your lives.


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## Diwundrin (Jan 25, 2014)

SifuPhil said:


> Hmmm ... I see I'm going to have to make one BIG flag in order to fit all this stuff on there. How about I just have a regular-sized flag with a star for each deadly beast?
> 
> View attachment 4641



I quite like that really, reminds me of  my first and favourite screen saver.  It was hypnotic, Id gaze into it and imagine I was in a spaceship cruising the galaxy....   wonder if it's still around?


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## Warrigal (Jan 25, 2014)

I like it too. Could the stars be represented by spangles?

Of course that would mean that we had the only true star spangled banner
so you would have to rename your national anthem to Betsy Ross' Flag.


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## SifuPhil (Jan 25, 2014)

Diwundrin said:


> ....   wonder if it's still around?



This is where I got the star-field - 

*Cool Star Wallpaper*


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## SifuPhil (Jan 25, 2014)

Warrigal said:


> I like it too. Could the stars be represented by spangles?
> 
> Of course that would mean that we had the only true star spangled banner
> so you would have to rename your national anthem to Betsy Ross' Flag.



Why on earth would you want a bunch of big-haired chicks representing your country?


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## Diwundrin (Jan 25, 2014)

SifuPhil said:


> This is where I got the star-field -
> 
> *Cool Star Wallpaper*



The one I had was screen saver and the stars appeared to be coming out of the screen towards you and it was just like travelling through space at warp speed ..and.... but I should have grown out of that by now right?


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## dbeyat45 (Jan 26, 2014)

SifuPhil said:


> [ Snip ]
> 
> View attachment 4641



That's better .... I remember seeing that one night camping out in Western Queensland.


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## SifuPhil (Jan 26, 2014)

Diwundrin said:


> The one I had was screen saver and the stars appeared to be coming out of the screen towards you and it was just like travelling through space at warp speed ..and.... but I should have grown out of that by now right?



Oh, okay, yeah - I think that was included with Windows as a screensaver starting with, what, Win 3.1?

I downloaded and tested *this one* - it's pretty basic but it might be close to what you want.


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## Diwundrin (Jan 26, 2014)

Thanks Phil, I'll download it later, I've only got enough brain left awake to find the light switch and the bed.  fftobed:


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## Fern (Jan 26, 2014)

New Zealand flag, 1840-1902..British Union Jack, adopted following the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, 1840.




1867-1869, 




1902, Official, in use from 1869


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## Fern (Jan 26, 2014)

One of the suggested designs for a new flag, it's rather nice, maybe a bit 'busy' but it does show the silver fern which is an emblem of NZ, plus the Southern Cross


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## Diwundrin (Jan 26, 2014)

I like it, no really!  I'd like anything that looks different to ours, but seriously, it's not too bad is it?


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## Diwundrin (Jan 26, 2014)

Came across this.  Still prefer the red one.  Flick the UJ and stick a roo or drop bear on it and it'll do.  Flags are just National brand logos basically, don't see why people get so anal about them really.

Seems I was wrong about the colour in WWI,  the blue one was naval/military, the red one was civil.   Shoulda researched. 



This 1901 version               flag               (ensign) was later approved (with minor changes) in red and blue versions.               The original concept was to represent the relative brightness of               each star in the constellation with the stars of the Southern               Cross having 9, 8, 7, 6 and 5 points. The Commonwealth Star,               symbol of Australian Federation, had six points, representing the               six States.​ In February 1903 it was announced in the Commonwealth         Gazette that King Edward VII had approved a design for the Flag of         Australia, and also one for the Flag of the Merchant Navy. Both designs         were shown in colour plates in the Gazette.​ 










 In 1908 the Government decided that a seven-pointed         star, symbolical of the six States and the Territories, should replace         the large six-pointed star shown in the original designs of the Flag -         to represent the Territories and to conform with the star in the Crest         of the Coat of Arms granted that year.​ For many years the Commonwealth Blue Ensign was         regarded as an official flag, and its use on land was restricted to         government establishments.   


  The flying of the Blue         Ensign         on land by         individuals and non-government bodies was discouraged. 
 As a result of that               and also the commonly held belief at that time that the Union Jack               was the 'flag of the Empire' most people used the Union Jack for               matters relating to the war effort in both World Wars. They also               took to using the Red Ensign as a               de-facto Civil Flag.


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## SifuPhil (Jan 26, 2014)

The red one _does_ have more punch and differentiates you folks more from that _other_ colony.


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## That Guy (Jan 26, 2014)

SifuPhil said:


> The red one _does_ have more punch and differentiates you folks more from that _other_ colony.



Makes me thing of those goddamned Commies, though...


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## Diwundrin (Jan 26, 2014)

Why let 'em corner Red TG?  Bugger 'em, we can use red if we wanna. It was around long before they were, so was even our red ensign.  They don't own red.

You mob don't own stripes either, Zebras patented them.  Just sayin'.


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## That Guy (Jan 26, 2014)

Diwundrin said:


> Why let 'em corner Red TG?  Bugger 'em, we can use red if we wanna. It was around long before they were, so was even our red ensign.  They don't own red.
> 
> You mob don't own stripes either, Zebras patented them.  Just sayin'.



I like the way you think.


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## drifter (Jan 26, 2014)

Dang, Phil, I thought they were boat people refugees and emailed the Australian PM to save me a couple.


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## Diwundrin (Jan 26, 2014)

drifter said:


> Dang, Phil, I thought they were boat people refugees and emailed the Australian PM to save me a couple.



You might be lucky Drifter but the supply is dwindling.


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## SifuPhil (Jan 26, 2014)

Diwundrin said:


> You might be lucky Drifter but the supply is dwindling.



That's right, Drifts - the poisonous marine life is zapping them all before they reach the shore.


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## Diwundrin (Jan 26, 2014)

Monsoon season may have something to do with the number reduction too of course, the sharks can only swallow so many. Everything has it's limitations.


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## SifuPhil (Jan 26, 2014)

Diwundrin said:


> Monsoon season may have something to do with the number reduction too of course, the sharks can only swallow so many. Everything has it's limitations.



... and not every shark enjoys Middle Eastern cuisine ... 

BAD, PHIL, BAD!


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