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Documenting Democracy
Australia's Story

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Flag with the Union Jack and Southern Cross

Fifty years before the design for the Australian flag was chosen, and a century before its legislative adoption, this flag, with the Union Jack and Southern Cross, was among the symbols used by the Australasian League established in Van Diemen's Land in 1851. The League's vigorous protests at British convicts being sent to the Colony, which had been separated from New South Wales in 1825, succeeded when transportation there ended in 1853. The name of the Colony was changed to Tasmania on 1 January 1856.