“We were sort of having a joke today because the Queen [of Australia] was in the dining hall for lunch and everyone’s going ‘The Queen is here! The Queen is here!’ I said ‘Anna’s here every lunchtime guys. She’s the queen of track cycling and you can’t really ask for a better role model than her.’ Australian cyclist Stephanie Morton talking about her roommate Anna Meares gets it absolutely right. Meares herself, who carried the flag in the opening ceremony, commented on the number of Aussie flags – and Boxing Kangaroos – she could see from the podium when she won a gold medal. Seems we’re still having trouble identifying our own flag in a sea of Commonwealth lookalikes all sporting the Union Jack in the upper left corner.
Woman for an Australian Republic, Adelaide Ironside, republican poet and artist 1831-1867
Self portrait 1855, Newcastle Art Gallery NSW
