![[City of Maitland flag]](../images/a/au-ns-mait.gif)
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by Valentin Poposki, 13 May 2022
Last modified: 2022-06-25 by ian macdonald
Keywords: new south wales | maitland | hunter river | coat of arms | bee (gold) | bow (gold) | books: 6 | egrets: 2 | mitre | mural crown | cedar |
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by Valentin Poposki, 13 May 2022
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The City of Maitland changed its flag in 2018
https://www.maitlandmercury.com.au/story/5547589/rail-plan-half-mast-flag-idea-flies-high/
Councillors supported a new design replacing the previous flag designed
in 2002. A report said the 2002 version carries elements that lean heavily on
council’s previous branding and features and does not strongly emphasise the
city’s coat of arms. “The flag is a civic symbol for a city and therefore should
be simple, meaningful, distinctive and enduring,” the report said. A flag does
not usually carry a city’s branding but rather focuses on the Coat of Arms of
the city. In Maitland, the city flag is present in the council chamber, is flown
from the Town Hall, Maitland Gaol and at civic events and is provided to other
entities in line with council’s Flying of Flags Policy. The purpose of a city
flag as a civic symbol is to represent the city as a whole, the report said.
Valentin Poposki, 13 May 2022
![[City of Maitland flag]](../images/a/au-ns-md.gif)
image from City of Maitland website, adapted by Valentin Poposki, 14 September 2005
The flag is divided between a darkish violet top and an indigo bottom, in proportions roughly 2:1, by two wavy lines (light blue over yellow), representing the Hunter River. In the indigo section are the words CITY OF MAITLAND in white. The "City of" is smaller than, and above the first part of "Maitland", fitting into a curve of the "river". In the top fly, sitting just above the other curve, is the City of Maitland coat of arms. The coat of arms has a white field, with a wavy blue fess containing a golden hunter's bow (representing the Hunter River). Above the fess are two golden sheaves (agriculture), below a gold bee (industry). There is a green border with six open books (schools and colleges) with white pages and golden borders (wealth). The supporters are two egrets (birds of the wetlands around the city) with mural crowns on their necks, standing on a compartment of brown alluvial soil (from those wetlands) with a ribbon bearing the motto "Justitia et Fortitudo Invincibilia Sunt", which symbolizes the spirit of the community in rising above adversities such as floods, and fostering of progress. As a crest, there is a helmet with blue and white mantling, a mural crown (as it is a city), a bishops mitre (representing the Catholic Diocese of Maitland) and a cedar tree (representing the area before European settlement - I'm not sure how it does that).
The flag is shown in a fairly large PDF file at http://www.maitland.nsw.gov.au/publications/TOOR/Part5b.pdf, with the caption “In 2002 Council adopted a new City Flag with the motif of that flag flowing into new corporate stationery in 2003”. The coat of arms is explained at the international civic heraldry site.From http://www.maitland.infohunt.nsw.gov.au/media_releases2002/02_07_26.pdf:
Contributed by Dov Gutterman, 25 December 2002NEW CITY FLAG TO FLY FOR FIRST TIME
At the launch of its Local Government Week activities for 2002 Maitland City Council will formally unveil its new City Flag. The flag unfurling ceremony is to be held from 10am on Monday 29 July 2002 at the City’s Administration Building, 285 High Street, Maitland, and will be the start of a week long series of events culminating - on 2 August 2002 - in a major event in the Heritage Mall, Maitland, in recognition of the Maitland CBD Improvement Program. According to Maitland Mayor, Peter Blackmore, the new City Flag is symbolic both of our City’s heritage and of its emerging significance as a business and residential powerhouse within the Hunter. “Flags have developed as symbols of unity, endeavour and joint aspiration. National flags tell of struggles for independence, of union preserved and of the sacrifices of men and women for the ideals and honour of their nation. City flags have a similar role as symbols of community and as a focus for civic pride. In 1981 Maitland City adopted a flag design following a design competition won by Mr Roy Hamson of Mindaribba. The 1981 flag – our first City Flag – used our traditional city colours of yellow, light green and black in a formal design that reflected the design concepts of that period.” He added, “Our old City Flag has served our City well but, in 2002, we have seized the opportunity afforded by new technologies and a leading edge approach to design to create a City Flag which presents – in vibrant colours – the beauty of our City Crest, the centrality of the Hunter River as it shapes and defines our City and the diversity of experience that is so much part of our emerging character.” Following its first public unfurling, the City Flag will every day be proudly flown from the flagstaff on the City’s Administration Building. Council will also be supplying a flag to Maitland and East Maitland RSL Sub-Branches and to Cadet Unit 234 who were awarded Freedom of our City in 2000. At a special “Breakfast Bash” at 8.30 am on Wednesday 31 July 2002 – Council will also be presenting representatives of our city’s youth with their own miniature version of the flag as a memento of Local Government Week and the launch of so important a symbol of our City.
