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City of Waverley (Victoria, Australia)

Description of the flag

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Description of the flag

Birth place and home for most of my life has been the suburb of Mount Waverley, originally in the Shire of Mulgrave - 1871-1961, then the City of Waverley - 14 April 1961 - 14 December 1994, before being merged with the neigbouring Oakleigh municipality (1891-1994), to form the Monash City Council.

During the life of the City of Waverley, it has had two Coats-of-Arms - unofficial and official and two flags.

1961 Arms

image provided by Ralph Bartlett, 25 May 2024

The first, unofficial, Coat-of-Arms were designed by the municipality's Engineer, Claude Vaughan, following various suggestions from then Shire Councilors and Officers in the weeks prior to the granting of "City" status and new name - Waverley. At the top, the Crest comprises a Muraille (brick) Castle and Clover Leaf, symbolic of the association with the Earl of Mulgrave, Marquis of Normanby (Constantine Henry Phipps) - British Home & Colonial Secretary of State 1839-41, and Mulgrave Castle in Whitby, Yorkshire, England.

The central Shield is divided into one-third (upper), showing an English heraldic Lion, and two-thirds (lower), showing a rising Sun over a road winding through green fields, symbolic of the municipality's origin as Roads Board District, heading into a brighter future under the traditional Australian "Rising Sun" symbol.

The Shield's supporters are two Kangaroos, another very Australian symbol, which were also very plentiful in the municipality prior to modern urbanisation. Below all of this is a Scroll with the motto, "DOMINE NOS DIRIGE" ("Lord Direct / Guide Us"). These Coat-of-Arms were in use until the April 1979.

1979 Arms

image provided by Ralph Bartlett, 25 May 2024

At the request of the majority of Councilors at Meeting in March 1977, the College of Arms in London granted a formal City of Waverley Coat-of-Arms, on 11 April 1979. Some of the features from the municipality's previous, unofficial, Coat-of-Arms were carried over into the new, official, Coat-of-Arms, with other design features included.

The most significant change was in the central Shield, which is still divided one-third (upper) and two-thirds (lower), now feature male and female European Arms, representing the municipality's residents, holding a Mural Crown, representing local government. In the lower section a blue & white Cross, representing the many Christian faiths in the municipality, creating four quarters. Each quarter shows representations of the first European settler's agricultural existence - Apple and Pear Trees, Jersey Bull and Jersey Cow. The Book at the centre of the cross represents the Schools and Libraries of the municipality. Between the two Kangaroos and the Shield are a Gold Mine "poppet" head - representing the 1896 discovery of Gold in the area, Coach or Wagon Wheel - representing the method of vehicle type transportation on the early roads of the municipality. The Latin Motto remained the same from the previous Coat-of-Arms.

Flag, 1980

image provided by Ralph Bartlett, 25 May 2024

On Australia Day, 26 January 1980, the Heraldic Shield of the official Coat-of-Arms, became the City of Waverley's first Council Flag and was raised for the first time on that day.

Flag, 1983

image provided by Ralph Bartlett, 25 May 2024

The quartered flag was used until November 1983, when the City's Council replaced it with the full Coat-of-Arms, in full colour, in the centre of a yellow field.

Car flag, 1989

image provided by Ralph Bartlett, 25 May 2024

There was also a City of Waverley Mayoral Car Flag, with the full Coat-of-Arms embossed in full colour on a dark blue field. Both of this flag and the 1983 yellow flag and the official Coat-of-Arms ceased to exist on the 14 December 1994, when most Victorian municipalities were abolished and merged with neighbouring municipalities, to form larger new municipalities.

Grant of Arms Letters Patent

image provided by Ralph Bartlett, 25 May 2024
[click on image for larger version]

For nearly 30 years the City of Waverley's Grant of Arms Letters Patent went missing and feared lost to history. After nearly 10 years of countless requests and discussions with the new merged Monash City Council senior officers, to search the Council's archives and storage areas, a fairly recently employed Senior Governance Officer telephoned me on 21 February 2023, to say that she had located the Waverley's Grant of Arms Letters Patent, carefully wrapped in bubble wrap in a storage room beneath the main Council Offices. On 3 March 2023, I visited the Council Offices and photographed this framed document. I now believe that the Waverley's last Town Clerk, who had been in that role since July-August 1974, had thankfully been appointed the new Monash City Council's first Senior Commissioner, from 14 December 1994, understood the historical significance of this document and did his best to preserve it for the future.

Ralph Bartlett, 25 May 2024