Daniel Hennessy has travelled the globe attending events on the international road cycling calendar — and is excited that his own city will be hosting the world's best cyclists next year.
Mr Hennessy has amassed 15 flags from around the world to pay tribute to cycling greats, counting the Flanders, Brittany, Basque, Australian and Dutch flags among his collection.
But when it comes to buying his home town Wollongong's flag to fly on his own flagpole, he baulks at the $220 price tag, and fears other residents do too.
Danny, a champion cyclist, would like to see Wollongong's flag flown across the city when the UCI Road World Championships come to town in September 2022.
Mr Hennessy says that's what happens in other country towns where cycling events occur, and thinks Wollongong will miss out on a valuable tourism strategy if the flag is not made available at a cheaper rate or even for free.
"The Illawarra is one of the most amazing places in the world and to have the cycling world championships come to my hometown is just incredible," he said.
Why the $220 price tag?
When Mr Hennessy asked about purchasing a Wollongong flag from his local council, he was told it would cost $220 plus shipping costs.
"This is because each flag is made to fit a standard flagpole and is of high quality with detailed embroidery/stitching," a council spokesperson said.
"The flags I buy usually come in around $29, so for $220 I can easily get about six other desirable flags," Mr Hennessy said.
'A lot for anyone's budget'
Ralph Bartlett, co-founder and secretary of the Flag Society of Australia, said it was up to whoever owned the flag and its design to decide whether they wanted to charge for it, and how much.
"A $200 flag is a very expensive flag regardless," he said.
"I would hope it's extremely good quality and ideally fully sewn for that price, not a screen-printed version.
"If council have copyright over it, then they have the right to charge what they like, but if they want the local citizens to fly it, it might be better for the council to have a more reasonable price to encourage people to go and buy it.
Wait, Wollongong has its own flag?
The Wollongong flag is nearly 40 years old, and the design by John Mulhall, from the suburb of Cringila, won a 1981 competition that attracted close to 300 entries.
To mark the Golden Jubilee of the city, the competition was sponsored by radio station 2WL and the Bank of NSW, awarding Mr Mulhall $1,000 and a distinguished place in Wollongong's history.
The competition was the idea of vexillographer John Vaughan, who was on the judging committee and remembers providing advice on the flag's final design.
"The design required extensive revision of devices and colours which I was empowered by council to undertake under the flexible rules of the flag competition," Mr Vaughan said.
"I submitted my revised design [of Mr Mulhall's entry], a full-sized sewn flag which was accepted without alteration by Wollongong City Council," Mr Vaughan said.
If you can afford a flag, how should you fly it?
While there aren't any rules for flying the Wollongong flag at home, the federal government has a book and website with information on how Australian flags should be displayed.
"You'll probably notice outside council buildings they fly both the Australian flag and the council flag and these days they often fly the Aboriginal flag as well," Mr Bartlett said.
"Ideally if you are flying a local council flag you should have the national flag flying next to it, but that requires two flag poles and not everyone has two flag poles of course."
Flying the flag for Wollongong
For Mr Hennessy, next year's road cycling championships are an opportunity to promote Wollongong to the world with a mass display of the city's little-known flag.
"We can be really proud of our region because we do have a flag but hardly anybody knows anything it about it," he said.
A council spokesperson said: "As we continue to plan for the event, opportunities to celebrate and showcase the city are being developed".
