THE ACT now owns its own Coat of Arms, after spending a century with the Commonwealth.

ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher today accepted the ACT Coat of Arms from Senator for the ACT Kate Lundy, during a ceremony in Civic.

The Coat of Arms was authorised by King George V in 1928 after the Commonwealth Department of Defence requested its use for the newly commissioned ship, HMAS Canberra.

The design includes a white rose, the badge of York ‘in remembrance of the Princes of that House and their visits to the City’. A portcullis, the badge of Westminster, ‘the home of the mother of all parliaments’, was used as the crest, with a gum tree behind it symbolising the idea of Canberra as a garden city.

One white swan and one black swan were chosen as the supporters of the coat of arms. The Latin motto, adopted from the Federal Capital Commission’s motto, was pro rege, lege and grege – translated as ‘for the king, the law and the people’.

Senator Lundy said she was “honoured” to have the privilege of representing the Commonwealth in presenting the ACT Coat of Arms to the ACT Chief Minister during the capital’s Centenary year.

“These important items have travelled many miles over many years to be where they are today,” she said.

“The Red Dispatch boxes being delivered to the ACT Government today arrived in Sydney by boat and then travelled to Canberra by rail in 1929. The Royal Warrant, which we are told ‘missed the boat’, was sent separately by diplomatic pouch arriving late March that same year. The Common Seal was manufactured in Melbourne through the Government Printer of the time.”

“Importantly, these wonderful artefacts have now found their rightful, symbolic home.”