New Flag for Victoria

What's that you say?  There's no way an Australian state flag can be a bigger copycat of the Australian national flag than New South Wales?  Well then allow me to introduce you to Victoria:

I believe the ratio of Union Jack to Southern Cross may be a bit different than the national, but if it wasn't for that little crown, you would be hard pressed to distinguish the two.  Victoria, in case you couldn't guess, is named for Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India, and sovereign of Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Egypt, and many, many other places at various points during her reign.  When the state that would be Victoria was separated from New South Wales by the British government, it is no surprise the named the new colony after their monarch.  The crown on the flag, which was adopted later, was meant to symbolize this connection.

The crown specifically depicts St. Edward's Crown, one of the British crown jewels which is used for coronations and appears on a number of flags and shields (such as the British Indian Ocean Territory).  Keeping this connection in mind, I feel like the crown should be retained in a new flag, but the basic template can be discarded.

Luckily (for me), Victoria has a great flag from it's past, the Eureka flag, a banner used in a brief rebellion in 1854:

This flag is not without controversy, but as the rebellion is often credited with bringing universal male suffrage to the colony, it provides a great symbol for democracy and for Australian independence.  I think with the addition of the crown, it provides historical background in a way unique to the state:

The only thing I wasn't sure of was whether the blue should continue behind the crown (between the top part of the crown and the red cloth, you should be able to see through it), so I've included that version as well:

I'm a little surprised I've gotten this far into Australian state flags without putting a kangaroo on one.  Don't worry though, it's coming.  Maybe for Queensland since I just did a monarch themed flag...

New Flag for Western Australia

The flag of Western Australia suffers from the same issues as all the other Australian state flags, literally, almost the exact same problems:

That swan is kind of neat though, so it will be retained, but the rest of the universal Aussi flag template is gone.  The swan is a Black Swan, the state bird of Western Australia and a common symbol for them, showing up on their seal as well.  If you've read my post on the flag of New South Wales, you'll understand my affinity for the Australian Aborigine flag, so my first idea to improve Western Australia's was a little lazy:

I think this one looks good, but if I rely too much on the pattern and color scheme, I'm not really fixing these flags, just shifting the theme of them.  So with that in mind, here was my second attempt:

This one is a uses blue for the vast coastline of the state, yellow for the incredible mineral wealth, and retains the swan as a central figure, thus using common flag concepts with one that is unique to Western Australia.  It is also a tad off center (top-to-bottom wise) so as to make it look like the swan is floating on the water.  My only concern with this one was that the swan seemed a bit too small, so I made it larger, filling the space a bit more, but still maintaining a simple figure:

Voila, a new flag for Western Australia.  Two down, four to go (five if I can think up a good one for the ACT).

New Flag for New South Wales

The first of the Australian states, it seems only fitting to begin this series by trying to fix the flag of New South Wales.  Here's what we have to work with:

If viewed on its own, this flag isn't that bad.  The Union Jack ties in the British heritage, as does the lion and cross of St. George.  In fact the only thing on this flag that is vaguely Australian are the four stars on the field, stars which are also used on the national flag.  The main problem with this flag is that it is almost identical to the flags of the other five states, the only difference being the contents of the seal, so rather than try and tweak this design, I've decided to scrap it and start fresh.

As the state is named New South Wales, I figured I'd start with the flag of Wales (though I've always wondered whether it means a new Wales in the south, or only named after Southern Wales):

This flag is awesome, mostly because of the dragon.  Since they use the Welsh name, I thought the folks in Sydney, Newcastle, and Wollongong might like to borrow some Welsh symbols.  This was my attempt at an antipodean version:

This quick flip of the colors and dragon orientation is a simple fix, but it packs a lot of meaning into a simple (well, calling that dragon simple is probably a stretch) design.  However, I wasn't satisfied and decided to change the color scheme as well.  The colors of the Australian national flag are red, white, and blue, but that combo didn't really work, so I went to another set of Australian colors, those used on the flag of the Aboriginal community:

This is an excellent flag and the colors provide a great contrast while conveying a deeper meaning.  Here is the final product:

With this flag you get the symbolism of the Aboriginal flag and the Welsh flag, while at the same time utilizing a very unique design, perhaps rivaled only by Bhutan in coolness.  I've removed almost all the interior detail of the dragon, excepting the eye and wing outline, and while it wouldn't be too easy to draw, it would be instantly recognizable.  This flag also has the added bonus of no longer being interchangeable with the flags of every other Australian state and most other British colonies.

Australian state flags

Ok, been awhile, but I'm back to start a new series.  For the next few weeks, we'll be looking at, and trying to improve, the state flags of Australia.  In the past, I've complained about monotony in both Canadian provincial and American state flags, but compared to the Aussie ones, those are a rainbow of diversity.  Every state flag Down Under flows a simple formula, the Union Jack in the top-left corner and a seal on the right, all on a dark blue background.

In a sad way, the flags of the Australian territories have far more interesting and unique flags than their state counterparts.  Here are a couple of the best examples of this:

This is the flag of the Northern Territory, home to Ayers Rock/Uluru and the only part of mainland Australia that isn't a state (maybe the capital area too, but that's a different situation).  They've taken three colors that contrast well and used them to recreate two very prominent symbols, the Southern Cross (a constellation also found on the national flag) and the Sturt's Desert Rose (the territorial flower which also has historical connections).  A very nice flag which is very different than any of the state flags, even though it uses similar symbols.  Another great example of an Australian flag done right is Norfolk Island:

A small island in the Pacific, populated largely by descendants of the HMS Bounty's mutineers.  Although the tree in the center may be a bit too detailed, the Norfolk pine is a familiar symbol of the island, and the fact that they only use two colors for the flag works well.  Like the Northern Territory, Norfolk Island is part of the Commonwealth of Australia, but isn't a state.

In the coming weeks, I'll be going through the states of Australia, and maybe some of the other territories, and trying to help them stand out, or at the very least be distinguishable from one another.  First up will be New South Wales.  I'd be on the look out for me playing up the "Wales" part of that, mostly because I have difficulty resisting the urge to put a dragon on a flag.

New Flag for West Virginia

West Virginia's flag has taken a page from Massachusetts by utilizing a white background, but by adding a blue border:

The border makes this flag stand out, but it isn't enough for me to keep it.  Born in battle, West Virginia came into being during the Civil War.  The common wisdom is that the state of Virginia was split because of slavery, but neglect would be a better, more inclusive term.  After decades of being treated as country cousins and losing money, power, and influence to the wealthy plantation owners in the Tidewater of eastern Virginia, the counties along the Ohio took the opportunity of Virginia's secession to secede themselves.  As the war progressed, the new state added more counties, many of which had voted to leave the Union, until two years after the war when the Supreme Court awarded two more counties from Virginia and thus created the modern state borders we know today.  In light of all that amazing history, isn't it too bad that this flag was the best they could do?

Their slogan is great "Mountaineers are Always Free" (in Latin, of course), but doesn't belong on the flag.  Neither does the name of the state.  Like I said, the border is good, but not good enough.  In the end I decided to go with a little used design in state flags (but ubiquitous everywhere else) the tricolor.  This was my first attempt:

I feel that black is underused in American state flags and it can look so good, contrasting with the sky.  I figured West Virginia, a state built on (literally and figuratively) coal would be the perfect one to utilize it.  The blue and green are also symbolic, standing for the Ohio and Potomac Rivers and the forests of the state.  As I considered this option, I decided that though I like the black being on the flag's fly, but it just wasn't right.  So I decided to change the orientation:

This one I like more, particularly because it now has a geographic component.  The blue still represents the rivers, as well as their place at the "top" of the state (the North Branch of the Potomac on the northeast and the Ohio on the northwest).  The green is for the entire state which lies below the rivers, and the black coal is on the bottom because it is underground.  However, I still thought it needed something, so I made one last change:

The yellow doesn't symbolize anything in particular, it just seemed to strengthen the difference between the bands.  I tried using red, for "born in battle" or something, but didn't like how it looked or what it stood for.  Yellow came in as the compromise choice, as white made it look too much like the flag of The Gambia.

Also fun fact, to me as a Virginian at least, did you know that in John Denver's song "Take Me Home, Country Roads" that the main geographic features that he mentions, the Shenandoah River and the Blue Ridge Mountains, are barely in West Virginia at all?  The Shenandoah touches the state only at the eastern tip and the vast majority of the Blue Ridge are in Virginia, and only a small part is in West Virginia.  Really John, you couldn't have checked a map? (Or whoever actually wrote it, it doesn't matter).