Happy Queen's Birthday 2014

The extraordinary event on this Queen's Birthday is the fact that The Age hasn't printed any nastiness. Usually they re-modelled one of the old rants against the Australian Monarchy and complain about the antiquated views of the local Monarchists (never about the antiquated point of views of the republicans who haven't changed a bit since they lost the referendum in 1999).

It is possible that The Age's website contains anti-monarchist rants, but who would check that website? There are more useful and more reliable sources of information on the world wide web.

While in Sydney Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark were received by NSW Governor, Dame Marie Bashir.

On this year's Queen's Birthday honours list 700 Australians have been recognised for their merits. The most prominent and only one with a damehood is The Governor of New South Wales, Marie Bashir, who has been appointed a Dame of the Order of Australia. She is the second woman to receive the title since knight and dames honours were reintroduced by Prime Minister Tony Abbott in March 2014.  She will be retiring soon. As her successor the Queen appointed General Hurley as the 38th Governor of NSW.

The Queen appointed General Hurley as the 38th Governor of NSW.

Unfortunately another Queen's Birthday event passed nearly unnoticed: The Queen's Birthday Parade at The Royal Military College at Duntroon, which marks the Queen's Birthday with the Trooping the Colour ceremony. This Parade is a celebration of the official birthday of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and is one of the college’s most auspicious annual events in which observers get to witness the Trooping of the Queen’s Colour. The parade was ignored by the mainstream media in Victoria (print, electronic or otherwise).

The annual Queen's Birthday Parade was held at the Royal Military College Duntroon on 7th June 2014.

The Colours of a unit or regiment embody the history, spirit and traditions to which they belong. They are highly valued, carefully guarded and treated with great respect. The custom of carrying Colours has its origin in ancient and medieval times when, during battle, warring factions carried flags bearing family badges or armorial bearings to show the positions of commanders and to serve as rallying points. Since 1751, regiments have been allowed two Colours only, the Queen's (or King's) Colour and the Regimental Colour.

Colours were first presented to the Corps of Staff Cadets in May 1927 by His Royal Highness the Duke of York, later to be King George VI, when he visited Australia for the opening of Old Parliament House. These Colours were originally laid up in St John's Church, Canberra, but returned to the College in 1989 and are now lodged in Patterson Hall, the Headquarters of the Royal Military College of Australia.

Replacement Colours were presented by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on 17th February 1954, 27th April 1970 and 10 May 1988. The 1954 Colours are laid up in St John's Church, the 1970 Colours in the RMC Chapel and the 1988 Colours in St Paul’s Chapel at RMC.

The Queen's Colour was trooped for the first time on the Queen's Birthday Parade in 1956 and has occurred every year since then. Her Majesty presented the current Colours on 22nd October 2011.

The Queen presents new Colours (Regimental Flags) to the Australian Royal Military College at Duntroon, Canberra, on 22nd October 2011.