Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

is one of the few regions of

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

to have officially adopted a flag. Otago has long been associated with several symbols and colours. The St. Andrew's Cross is one such symbol, in recognition of the former province's

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

settlement. Another, used on the original arms of the province, is the eight-pointed star. Traditionally, the province (as the region is still called) has always been associated with the colours blue and gold, these colours representing Otago's original foundation, on the wealth of

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

taken from the rivers of the province during the 1860s

gold rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New Z ...

. The blue also again harks back to the

flag of Scotland The flag of Scotland ( gd, bratach na h-Alba; sco, Banner o Scotland, also known as St Andrew's Cross or the Saltire) is the national flag of Scotland, which consists of a white saltire Defacement (flag), defacing a blue field. The Saltire, r ...

. For many years, these colours were seen in a wide variety of different designs intended to represent Otago. Popular designs included flags quartered in blue and gold, or in blue with a gold

saltire A saltire, also called Saint Andrew's Cross or the crux decussata, is a heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross, like the shape of the letter X in Roman type. The word comes from the Middle French ''sautoir'', Medieval Latin ''saltator ...

. A vertically divided design in blue and gold with the word "Otago" in white

fimbriated In heraldry and vexillology, fimbriation is the placement of small stripes of contrasting colour around common charges or ordinaries, usually in order for them to stand out from the background, but often simply due to the designer's subjective ...

in black was also popular and can still be seen in use in the province. In 2004, a campaign was started by prominent local author and regional councillor

Neville Peat Neville Douglas Peat (born 1947) is a New Zealand author and photographer, based at Broad Bay on the Otago Peninsula. He specialises in topics about natural history, notably that of southern New Zealand and New Zealand's subantarctic islands. ...

to decide on a design for a flag for the region as a whole (and more specifically for use by the

Otago Regional Council Otago Regional Council (ORC) is the regional council for Otago in the South Island of New Zealand. The council's principal office is Regional House on Stafford Street in Dunedin with 250-275 staff, with smaller offices in Queenstown and Alexand ...

). The design (chosen in late 2004 from several hundred entries submitted) was designed by Gregor Macaulay. It is

blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The vis ...

ed ''Per fess dancetty azure and or, two mullets of eight points in pale counterchanged''. The design represents the blue skies over the hills of Otago separated by a zigzag dividing line, similar to that found on the flag of the province's main centre,

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

. The two eight-pointed stars were taken from the former

Otago Provincial Council The Otago Province was a province of New Zealand until the abolition of provincial government in 1876. The capital of the province was Dunedin. Southland Province split from Otago in 1861, but became part of the province again in 1870. Area an ...

's seal, and also represent the sun shining over the lakes and the hills of

Central Otago Central Otago is located in the inland part of the Otago region in the South Island of New Zealand. The motto for the area is "A World of Difference". The area is dominated by mountain ranges and the upper reaches of the Clutha River and tributa ...

References

Flag A flag is a piece of fabric (most often rectangular or quadrilateral) with a distinctive design and colours. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design empl ...

Flags of New Zealand Flags adopted through competition

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