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H a p p y   I n d e p e n d e n c e !

“AS THE SUN SET on the afternoon of 15 September 1975, the Australian flag came down for the last time from Hubert Murray Stadium, in Papua New Guinea’s capital of Port Moresby. Almost 70 years of Australian governance was coming to an end.

At 9:30 am the next day, a different flag – black and red with a golden bird of paradise – rose on Independence Hill, near a newly formed Parliament House. PNG was no longer an Australian territory but an independent nation.

In contrast to other recently independent states such as Uganda and Kenya, the change of authority in PNG was marked not by bloodshed but by celebration. Sir John Guise, the first Governor-General of PNG, said at the flag lowering ceremony: “It is important the people of Papua New Guinea, and the rest of the world, realise the spirit in which we are lowering the flag of our colonisers. We are lowering the flag, not tearing it down.” – Written by Beau Gamble 

~ by Fionnlagh on September 16, 2013.

Posted in 👽 [F]-F I L E S
Tags: Papua New Guinea Independence Day, SEP 16 - Independence from Australia of the former Territories of New Guinea and Papua in 1975, Written by Beau Gamble (australiangeographic.com.au)