Tasmania and the Belgic Lion

Tasmania has a red lion in it’s heraldry. The image below shows the shields of state. Tasmania’s is the red lion – bottom right;

The funny thing about Tasmania’s red lion is no one seems to know where it came from. This below from a Tasmanian government source:

A proclamation which appeared in the Hobart Town Gazette on 25 September 1876, and accompanied by illustrations, officially proclaimed three flags for the colony of Tasmania. These flags were the Governor’s flag, the flag for Government vessels and the flag for merchant vessels.

For reasons unknown the proclamation was revoked soon after. However, the flag for Government vessels, the Blue Ensign with lion passant on a white shield or badge in the fly of the flag, was subsequently adopted for general State Government use, but was not officially gazetted until 3 December 1975.

There is no official record of the reason for using the lion. Lions have featured prominently in European heraldry for centuries, and it has been supposed that the lion symbolises the colony’s loyalty to Great Britain.

I did some checking, and they got basic facts wrong here. Here’s the correct timeline:

• An initial proclamation with illustrations on 9 November 1875
• A revocation of the previous proclamation on 23 November 1875 (image below)
• A new proclamation in 25 September 1876 (image below, there were no accompanied illustrations as per gov quote above) Note the Colony flag is reserved for the use of government vessels only, merchants use a plain red ensign.
• A more recent proclamation 3 December 1975 which declared the blue-ensign-based flag being the State flag (image below)

• 

• 

• 

The first proclamation (that was revoked) has been reported on the interwebs as being of a gold lion facing to the right*. But the revocation of that proclamation (image above) refers to revoking a red lion. So something isn’t adding up.

** HELP ME: anyone want to verify – go to a big Australian library, see if they have The Hobart Town Gazette, 9 November 1875, No. 5080. I think there are three gazettes with the same date (which is unusual for a normally once-a-week publication) look for the one with No 5080 top right corner on the title page. It should have an illustration of some flags on the article somewhere inside the gazette. I would like to see the proclamation text. I found some archived Hobart Gazettes here – but the one I am after is missing. **

Anyway – the final design used ended up being a red lion passant.

In heraldry, “Passant” is a description of the attitude, or posture of the lion. Passant means the lion has three paws on the ground, and it’s head is looking forward facing to the viewer’s left. A lot of speculative commentary (eg. the gov site I quoted above) on the use of a lion passant in Tasmania supposes a link to Great Britain. But English royal lions typically come in threes, are gold coloured, and/or they are “passant guardant” – which means the lion’s head is turned toward the viewer. Yes, there have been variations over time, and Great Britain is not just England. But still – a single red lion passant seems to come from nowhere.

Possible link to a Belgic Lion

Looking at Tasmania’s history in the context of the initial first discovery claim of Van Diemen’s Land by Abel Tasman, the Anglo-Dutch Treaties of 1814 and 1824 – perhaps the Tasmanian heraldry lion is a Belgic Lion. The Dutch had First Discovery over Van Diemen’s Land, and it seems that the British acquired Van Diemen’s Land through Treaty/s with the Dutch. In that context – I’m thinking it makes sense to acknowledge that fact, perhaps by using Dutch heraldry for the colony and naming it after the discoverer (Tasman -> Tasmania).

The Treaty of 1824 – the representatives signing on the Dutch side – the King, an ambassador and minister for colonies were members of the Royal Order of the Belgic Lion;

And His Majesty The King of the Netherlands, Baron Henry Fagel, Member of the Equestrian Corps of the Province of Holland, Counsellor of State, Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the Belgic Lion, and of the Royal Guelphic Order, and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of His said Majesty to His Majesty The King of Great Britain; – And Anton Reinhard Falck, Commander of the Royal Order of the Belgic Lion, and His said Majesty’s Minister of the Department of Public Instruction, National Industry, and Colonies:

The King here, is William I of the Netherlands of House Orange-Nassau. The Royal Order of the Belgic Lion was new – it was instituted in 1815. The treaty of 1824 happened not long after the Napoleonic wars, so the Netherlands were undergoing major constitutional change after being occupied by Napoleon.

The symbol of the Belgic lion – leo belgicus – is both a map of the Low Countries (modern-day Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, part of France) and heraldry. I think it’s kind of cool.

The lion-map has three feet on the ground, the front paw raised, the head and body facing right.

This is the opposite way around from the left-facing red Tasmanian lion. But – the original Tasmanian (gold) lion was facing right. Here’s the 1875 governor flag (from wikipedia)

Looking through a lot of different heraldry, a lone, right-facing lion is pretty unusual. Left facing is very common. Maybe it was a right-facing Belgic lion – but they flipped it’s not so obvious.

Town of Orange

In New South Wales there is a town called “Orange”. It was named after the son of William I of the Netherlands of House Orange-Nassau, William II. The son did military service and fought for the British in the Peninsular war, where NSW surveyor Thomas Mitchell worked in topographical intelligence.

So the town was named after the son of the King who signed the Anglo-Dutch treaty of 1824 (House Orange-Nassau).

I already wrote about this here, but there was initially an invisible Dutch/British border on the Australian mainland. The town of Orange lies just on the Dutch side of the line. The line fell with the 1824 treaty. The town of Orange was named just a couple of years after the 1824 treaty.

So all-up, here are some potential, secret hat-tips to the 1824 treaty:

• The name Tasmania.
• The name of the town of Orange, NSW
• The mystery lion of Tasmanian state heraldry

Maybe I’m stretching a bit with the lion – but I find it all very strange. It’s heraldry – the whole point of heraldry that is to show continuation, and to link back into history, bloodline or place. To use a lion for Tasmania, but use a black swan for Western Australia doesn’t otherwise make sense.

Also why are government sources getting basic facts wrong about their own heraldry, they don’t know or don’t care what their symbols mean? Why can’t I find the one gazette with the original proclamation in it online – but I found the correct, seemingly otherwise complete series of the Hobart Gazette to which it belongs?