A historic Honour Flag, recognising the Mintaro district’s contribution to a World War II Commonwealth War Loan, has been restored and is on display at the History Trust of SA’s headquarters at Torrens Parade Ground in Adelaide.
The flag, which was being used as a draught reducer at Mintaro Institute, was “discovered” by Will Clough, of Riverton, during an RSL meeting at the institute about five years ago.
“He took it away and did a lot of research on it and it came back to the Mintaro Progress Association through Derek Boulton,” Mintaro War Memorial Committee chairman Peter Jones said.
The progress association considered donating the flag to the National War Memorial in Canberra but decided to give it to the History Trust of SA so it could stay in South Australia. It was restored by Artlab Australia at a cost of about $15,000.
“It was too precious for us to look after and the history trust was quite happy to restore it and give us a replica,” Mr Jones said.
The replica, which is about one-third the size of the original, will be unveiled by the Governor of South Australian, Rear Admiral Kevin Scarce, at the Mintaro Institute next Thursday (November 26) at 3pm.
Students from Farrell Flat Primary School will sing the National Anthem, Mintaro Progress Association president Hamish Gosse will be the master-of-ceremonies, and local resident and history buff John Hawke will present some of the research about the flag.
The Honour Flags were awarded to towns or districts which raised their allocated quota of funds for the Commonwealth Government Seventh War Loan from September 16 to October 28, 1918.
People were urged to take out loans from their banks at a three percent interest rate and the Government would give the donors four percent interest.
Many rural folk guaranteed their land and crops in raising the loans. When hard times arrived, many could not repay the loans and the interest from the Government proved to be inadequate, sending many rural citizens broke.
South Australia’s quota for the Seventh War Loan was £3.5 million but the state raised £4,146,910 – the equivalent of $622 million in today’s money. The national tally raised from the Seventh War Loan was more than £42 million, which is more than $6 billion in today’s terms.
The individual bars and the Federation Star were added to the original Honour Flag as a town achieved double its subscription rate. As the amounts received above the quota were realised, a bar was added to show each level of over-subscription until the final receipt of the star, when the town had doubled the quota.
“Unfortunately we have been unable to discover what the quota amount from the Mintaro district was, but we do know from the three bars and the star that the quota was at least doubled,” Mr Jones said.
“There is some evidence that the Mortlock family were major contributors within this district and that the flag was kept at Martindale Hall until given to the Progress Association some time in the 1930s.
“The flag is featured in a photograph at the opening of the Mortlock Bridge in Mintaro in 1924.
“Some reports suggest that this particular flag was flown above the Bank of Thrift, a promotional facade erected outside the gates of Government House on September 16, 1918, to promote the War Loan and encourage subscriptions,” Mr Jones said.
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