Last modified: 2010-02-12 by jonathan dixon
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The City of Liverpool is a local government area in the west of Sydney. It
stretches from Liverpool, one of Australia's oldest urban areas, settled
in 1810 by Governor Macquarie on the Georges River, west to the Nepean
River. The original settlement was named after the Earl of Liverpool, then
Secretary of State for Colonies. For many years a centre of agriculture,
it is now very much a part of metropolitan Sydney, although a significant
amount of the 305 sq km council area is semi-rural.
Jonathan Dixon, 30 November 2008
Today I saw the flag of the City of Liverpool, flying with the national and state flags at the northern end of the Macquarie Street Mall in Liverpool. The flag is a 1:2 vertical triband, green-white-green, in roughly the "Canadian pale" proportions of 1:2:1, bearing the coat of arms of the city on the central white stripe.
The council webpage Liverpool City's identifiers does not mention the flag, but does describe the arms, with more details from a council pamphlet given at the International Civic Heraldry website.
The shield of the arms is white with a blue wavy chief. On the white is a cormorant, or "e;liver bird", as in the arms of Liverpool in England, bearing a sprig of golden wattle, the national floral emblem. The blue wavy chief represents the Georges River and bears an ancient ship between two towers. These are taken from the arms of the founder Governor Macquarie, although the leaflet also links them to navigation on the river and the army base at Holsworthy, respectively.
The crest consists of a mantled helm, the mural crown usual for city arms
and a winged bull on a grassy mound with a crosslet. The bull and cross
symbolise the local Anglican church, St Luke's, commissioned by Macquarie
and designed by architect Francis Greenway. The supporters are the two
hawks which are supporters in the arms of Lord Liverpool (Baron
Hawkesbury), each with a blue collar bearing two gold stars, reflecting
the shield of his arms. The hawks also refer to identification of the
Royal Engineers with the city, through a gold shield bearing a fired
grenade hanging from each collar. They stand on a green compartment, and
the motto is Nisi Dominus Frustra ("Without God all is in vain", from
Psalm 127).
Jonathan Dixon, 30 November 2008