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Historical Flags (Papua New Guinea)

Last modified: 2000-01-07 by santiago dotor
Keywords: papua new guinea | papua | new guinea | neu-guinea | kaiser-wilhelmsland | bismarck archipelago | bird: of paradise | crown | ensign: blue | name |
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Introduction

Papua New Guinea is made up of two former colonial territories:

  • The UN Trust Territory of New Guinea, consisting of the northeastern quarter of the island of New Guinea. This was formerly the German colony of Schutzgebiet Kaiser-Wilhelmsland und Bismarck-archipel, later called Schutzgebiet Deutsch Neu-Guinea (1884-1921) and thereafter the Society of Nations' Mandated Territory of New Guinea.
  • The Australian External Territory of Papua, consisting of the southeastern quarter of the island of New Guinea.
Both territories were jointly administered by Australia since 1949, became a self-governing state on December 1st 1973 and independent on September 16th 1975. The western half of the island of New Guinea constitutes the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1981.

Santiago Dotor, 5 January 1999


Colonial Papua

[Colonial Papua]
by Zeljko Heimer

Papua just had the circle, the crown, and the word PAPUA under the crown.

Josh Fruhlinger, 20 February 1996.


Colonial Papua New Guinea

If one takes Papua New Guinea as having come into existence in 1949, the only flag that wasn't purely Australian and had the Union Jack in the canton was the flag of the Customs Service. This was the Australian Blue Ensign with the addition in the fly of a white disc bearing the letters 'T.P. & N.G.C.' in bold black characters. Source: Flag Bulletin number 130 of 1989, which has an article on the flags of eastern New Guinea in general.

David Prothero, 21 April 1998


Flag of 1965

[Papua New Guinea 1965]
by Pascal Gross

Some reports show the tail feathers as brown instead of red. The bird of Paradise on a plain green flag was used by Papuasia at sport events in Australasia (I think for Commonwealth Games) prior of independence. Among many sources, I believe there is more information in Barraclough and Crampton 1981.

Edward Mooney, 24 August 1998

From the Flags of Paradise chart:

1962-1969: Australian Trust Territory
Flag quite similar to the 1965 flag, but ratio is 1:2 and main feathers of the bird are brown.
1970-1971: Australian Trust Territory
Vertical triband: blue with white Crux Australis, yellow, red with white paradise bird (but DK pocket book reports a golden paradise bird).
1971-1975: Australian Self Government
Current national flag.
1975-: Independent state
Current national flag.

The chart shows also provincial flags.

Ivan Sache (?)