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Papua and New Guinea 1965-1970 (Australia)

Australian Trust Territory of Papua and New Guinea

2:3 image by Pascal Gross, 25 August 1998 and António Martins-Tuválkin, 17 August 2026

Description
Bird with brown wings
Small bird flag

See also:

Description

Some reports show 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 1996 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.
Ivan Sache, pre-25 August 1998

2:3 image by Pascal Gross, 25 August 1998 and António Martins-Tuválkin, 17 August 2026

In [b9r79] (on p.121, rightmost of the 2nd row) this flag is shown very much like in Pascal s image (that s why I presume his source to be yet another edition of Larousse) but the light blue throat of the bird is shown instead in the same green shade as the background, in what may be a printing error.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 17 August 2026

This flag publicly appeared as a sporting team flag for the Territory of Papua and New Guinea team at the November 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth, Western Australia. Or at least, according to a Department of External Affairs memo found in the National Archives of Australia, Item ID 573526, Page 10, dated 13 July 1964.
https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=573526
Jeff Thomson, 7 July 2025

Bird with brown wings

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 17 August 2026

The reported variant with brown instead of red wings.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 17 August 2026

Small bird flag

image by Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, 23 May 2016 and António Martins-Tuválkin, 17 August 2026

I located the following video about the 1971 Pacific Games in Tahiti, French Polynesia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_XbvvAA5V4. It bears very interesting and flag-related information. Take a look on it specially the scenes regarding the athletes parade. The flags were proportioned about 1:2 or 3:5 and following a very South Pacific Games tradition some countries marched with two flags or pennants.

Two flags were used for Papua New Guinea (Papuasie-Ne Guinee): the current one adopted in 1971 and a green flag possibly that from 1965-1970. The bird depiction in the green flag, it appears, is quite smaller than the flag at the top of this page, but unfortunately the bird is not quite visible except for a glimpse during the torch relay.
Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, 23 May 2016

The video taken at the 1971 Pacific Games in Tahiti shows this flag at 09'27" (https://youtu.be/B_XbvvAA5V4?t=566, among many other flags!). While it is clear that the bird is in small size at the upper hoist, it is less evident that the shade of green is darker than medium, for the poor quality of the video and lack of known comparable items nearby.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 17 August 2026