Queen's Birthday in Australia

This Monday is a public holiday to celebrate our Monarch. The Age seems to have resigned to the fact that Australia enjoys the Constitutional Monarchy and did not publish very nasty articles. Only in the final two paragraphs of an editorial that commented on the 666 recipients in this year's Queen's birthday honours list, The Age ranted in a resigned attitude about the "inevitable progression towards becoming a republic.":

As The Age has said before, awarding of Australian honours on a day supposedly devoted to our head of state is anachronistic and confusing.

The other time of year Australian honours are awarded is on Australia Day, as is appropriate. There is nothing wrong in retaining the long weekend, but it should be for a different, more relevant, reason. Would the Queen really mind all that much if Australians ceased to mark her birthday?

I do not want to comment on the editorial's unjournalistic last sentence. Haven't The Age's editors not learned one of the most important principles when writing a comment: Never finish with a question mark. But this is not the only journalistic principles The Age loves to ignore. Fair reporting from both sides of the Monarchy vs. republic dispute comes to mind.

Trooping the Colour in Australia
On the 12th June 2010 - the same day Britain honours Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's official birthday with Trooping the Colour, Australia paid tribute to her Monarch with a "Queen's Birthday Parade" at The Royal Military College at Duntroon.

Here's the ABC's short report on this great event.



Unfortunately there was neither a live coverage of the Australian nor of the British ceremonies on the Australian television networks.

The Royal Military College (RMC) of Australia trains and educates the future officers of the Army.

'Colours' originated from the distinctive badges or crests on medieval banners and were used in the British Army originally as a means of identifying the location of the headquarters of regiments in battle. In time the Colours became a focal point of regimental esprit de corps.

The original Colours were first presented to the RMC by His Royal Highness the Duke of York (later King George VI) during his visit to Australia in 1927. These Colours are now lodged in the Headquarters of the Royal Military College of Australia, Patterson Hall. The Queen's Colour was trooped for the first time on the Queen's Birthday Parade in 1956. The present Colours were presented by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in May 1988.

This year's parade comprised 350 members of the Corps of Staff Cadets from all three classes at the College. The success of recruiting and retention efforts at the RMC sees the largest number of cadets on parade since 1998.

The RMC Band provided musical accompaniment for the Trooping the Colour ceremony.