^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Governor of Western Australia (Australia)

image by Martin Grieve, 12 Mar 2006

Description of the flag
Historical Governor's flags
- 1870s-1953
- 1953-1988

See also:

Description of the flag

The Western Australian State Governor's flag was changed to a slight variation of the State Flag, with the addition of the St. Edward's Crown above the fly badge on 12 April 1988, after three other states had made a similar change.
Ralph Bartlett, 4 August 2004

The Western Australian State Governor's flag changed around 1989 from the defaced Union Jack with the Black Swan emblem, to the current state flag with the crown placed above the black swan. I was a police officer for many years and spent many mornings hoisting the Governors flag over Government House, Perth. The then Governor decided that the old design was to similar to the Union Flag and caused confusion.
Chris Donnelly, 8 August 2004

This flag was a matter of some curiosity to both Clay Moss and myself. We both had some doubts as to whether the Royal crown was "floated" above or "welded" to the State badge and so Clay wrote to the Western Australian Governor's office to enquire as to which version was correct. The Governor's office very kindly responded that the crown should "float" above the badge - or words to that effect. This then agrees with the various Governor's flags depicted on the World Flag Database web-site.
Martin Grive, 1 March 2006

However, the World Flag database web site might also be wrong. As the Department of Premier and Cabinet web site states:

The Personal Flag of the Governor of Western Australia is the blue ensign consisting of a blue flag with the Union flag occupying the upper quarter next to the staff, differenced in the fly or half of the flag further from the staff by the State Badge surmounted by the Crown of Saint Edward situated centrally in the fly.

and provides an image where it is clearly shown that the phrase "situated centrally in the fly" means not just the disc surmounted by a Saint Edward's Crown, but the disc and the crown. The crown itself is also larger than that shown on the World Flag Database. The image shown on the Governor of Western Australia web site also shows such a proportion. Other sources, including illustrations in the book Australian Flags [ozf98], published by the Commonwealth Government, also show the different position of the disc on the Governors' flags.
Colin Dobson, 2 March 2006

The Western Australian Governor's office were generous and sent Clay a digital photograph of the Governor's flag. There are clearly many differences from the the picture they sent, to the illustration depicted on the "World Flag Database" web-site.
viz:
Hoist width - 120units
Diameter of circle - 60 units - (This matches Christopher Southworth's 1/2 specification for the disk on the state flag.)
Crown Height - 38 units
Distance from lower edge of flag to lower quadrant of disk = Distance from upper edge of flag to top of cross on crown = 3 units. [presumed that the entire defacement is centralized on the fly]
These are "guesstimates" of course, and in no way are these figures "official".
Martin Grieve, 12 March 2006

Historical Governor's flags

See also: History of the state flag

Western Australia State Governor used the defaced Union Flag.
David Prothero, 24 February 1997

1870s-1953

image by Martin Grieve, 28 Feb 2006

The first badge of Western Australia was a yellow disk upon which a silhouetted Black Swan was emblazoned, facing the fly. It was adopted on 27 November 1875, according to Barraclough and Crampton [bcr78] and Znamierowski [zna99], but on 3 January 1870 according to Ausflag.
Martin Grieve, 28 February 2006

1953-1988

image by Martin Grieve, 1 Mar 2006

In 1953, the black swan was reversed so that it faced hoistwards.
Martin Grieve, 1 March 2006