In
1865 the Imperial Parliament passed the Colonial Naval Defence Act, it permitted the colonies of Australia to possess and operate ships of war.
This led to the requirement of ensigns (flags) that would distinguish the origin of all vessels belonging to, or permanently in the service of, Colonial Governments.
The colonies were advised by the Imperial Parliament to adopt flags based on the British Blue Ensign, with their colony
seal or badge positioned in the fly.
The Blue Ensign is a navy blue flag with the Union Flag or Union Jack, of Great Britain, in the upper hoist (upper left corner).
Symbolically, the black swan has been linked to Western Australia since
its earliest years as a British-European settlement. In the 1830s the settlement was referred to as the Swan River Colony.
In 1697, the Dutch navigator Willem de Vlamingh named the river he
chartered ‘Swan River’, after the large amount of swans he found upon it.
When an emblem was required to represent the colony the black swan, because of its long symbolic association to the settlement, was an obvious choice.
Representations of the swan had already appeared on locally produced bank notes, postage stamps,
newspaper and the first issue of the Western Australian Government Gazette.
In 1870, the Governor of Western Australia, Frederick A. Weld put forward a drawing of a black swan on a yellow background as the badge of the colony.
The Western Australian Colonial Governor officially confirmed a flag featuring a black swan on a yellow shield in a despatch dated the 27th of
November 1875.
The original Western Australian shield had the swan facing the fly (away from the pole); this was reversed in 1953 to have the swan facing the hoist (the pole).
The current Western Australian flag dates from 1953. |
