MELBOURNE PORT CORPORATION.

M575 is recorded for the suction dredger A M Vella as the Victorian Public Works Department colours.

The funnel was retained on the name change. A blue Australian ensign with white crossed anchors in the fly was sometimes flown, but Tompkins questioned whether it was a house flag in the strict sense. Li’s illustration has 2:1 proportions; his account dates adoption to 1877 and, citing Flags of the World, says it lacked an Admiralty warrant and was probably no longer used. Rosanoski notes that the reference actually describes an assumed takeover from the preceding state department on 1 January 1877. With the fleet reduced to hoppers, he presumed the funnels extinct and considered any new corporation flag likely to have changed.