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I was just reading recently that the Australian flag was actually red until Prime Minister Menzies formalised the blue in the early 1950’s, probably to minimise the use of that horrible communistic red. He had the authority to do this, no people’s choice required by the Constitution as it was more a change in emphasis as I see it. Colour paintings of the new Australian Parliament House in Canberra at its opening show red flags. I didn’t know that! Of course the red ensign is still used for some purposes, as is the white. How common is it to have the flags in three different colours....not very common I would imagine and a little confusing.
It seems the Brits have a similar multi colour situation. In Australia, the white ensign has been the flag for Australian Naval vessels since 1967, before which the British flag (white ensign I am assuming) was used. The red ensign was the official flag colour for State and Local Governments, private organisations and individuals until the Flag Act 1953 was passed encouraging I think would be the word, the use of the blue flag and general use of the red flag fell out of use around 1954. Reds under the bed and all that!
In 1981, the Shipping Registration Act made the red ensign the flag for smaller commercial and private shipping and boats.
Until 1953, technically the blue flag was for Commonwealth Government use only. It seems in 1901 two flags, the red and blue were devised for slightly different purposes but we should note the use of the red ensign flag at the opening of the new Parliament House by the Commonwealth in 1927, 26 years after 1901 despite the note above. Confusing I must say.
ARLINGTON, Va.- Coast Guard Recruits look for headstones of fallen Coastguardsmen during the annual Flags Across America event at Arlington National Cemetery, Saturday, November 5, 2011. Two recruit companies visited Arlington National Cemetery for their one day of off-base liberty, which is their only break in an eight-week boot camp at the Coast Guard’s Training Center in Cape May, N.J. (U.S. Coast Guard Photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Etta Smith)
Each year in Luckenbach at their Texas Independence Day celebration, an old Texas flag is retired are replaced with a new flag. The solemn ceremony is conducted by members of the Former Texas Rangers Association while dressed in period garb. A Texas flag is lowered from a flag pole and carried, as it is being done here, to a fire pit where the star is removed and the fields of color separated. One by one as a narrator explains the significance of the colors, each field and then the star is burned in the fire. Once that is done, a new flag is unfolded, carried to the flag pole and hoisted aloft.
Loran Steinlages, WEst Union Iowa, painted his old dairy barn in the colors of the American flag in honor of his dad's service in the military.