Flying the flag for Eureka

AT Ballarat Girls’ High School in 1973, needlework teacher Valda D’Angri was approached by Ballarat mayor Jack Chisolm.

The City had a special flag in their library archives, and requested Mrs D’Angri stich and conserve it for display.

That Saturday, she visited the Art Gallery of Ballarat, where two men brought out a large, wrapped piece of fabric within another sheet.

When rolled out, the original Eureka Flag of 1854 was revealed, about 13.5 feet by 8.5 feet.

“I couldn’t bear the thought of it not being preserved. I looked at Jack and said, we better do something about it,” she said.

During the May school holidays, Mrs D’Angri’s project to preserve the Eureka Flag began. She was provided with a board and brought backing fabric with her that she’d stitched with the help of her students and daughter.

“We gently picked up, and laid on that fabric, the very precious flag.”

Trusted with the keys to the gallery, Mrs D’Angri stitched it quarter by quarter all day, each day of the holidays, until 11pm, with technical support from her husband Norman.

It was displayed at the Gallery for many years, before finding its home at the Eureka Centre.

“When men came around the corner and saw it, they’d take their hats off… I felt that the reverence towards it was wonderful,” she said.

“It was so close to nearly being lost. How great it is that the next generations can see it and know about it. I am so proud of it.”

For that conservation work, the creation of a replica flag for a touring Eureka Exhibition in 1988, and keeping history alive through the Eureka Stockade Memorial Association and Ballarat Historical Society, Mrs D’Angri has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia.