HMAS Wagga crew to part with last flag

By Ben Higgins
Updated November 7 2012 - 2:44pm, first published April 22 2011 - 11:41pm
LAST VOYAGE: The ex-servicemen who served aboard HMAS Wagga will present the last ensign to Wagga City Council this Saturday. A reunion of former personnel is held every two years.
LAST VOYAGE: The ex-servicemen who served aboard HMAS Wagga will present the last ensign to Wagga City Council this Saturday. A reunion of former personnel is held every two years.

THE crew of the HMAS Wagga are expected to gather for the last time this weekend.To mark the event, the men who served on board will present the Wagga's last sea ensign, a flag flown from all Royal Australian Navy ships, to Wagga mayor Wayne Geale today.The white ensign will be presented to Councillor Geale on behalf of Wagga City Council at a remembrance dinneron Saturday at the Wagga RSL Club, commencingat 6.30pm.HMAS Wagga’s last voyage was in October1960 and ex-servicemen have been gatheringin Wagga every two years for a reunion.“The ensign has been paraded down the main street of Wagga on Anzac Day for each biennial home portreturn of the ship’s crew, but the ensign has got to a state where they decided it had to be preserved before it crumpled away and was lost forever,” Cr Geale said.“The HMAS Wagga and its crew will always be remembered for their dedicated service and this ensignwill take pride of place within the Civic Centre as a reminder of that dedication.”The white ensign is a British naval ensign and was flown from Australian ships from 1911 to 1967, after which it was changed to the Australian whiteensign with the Union Jack and the SouthernCross.

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