Town’s Australian flag taken

By Tania Martin
MONBULK Rotary Club has been left scratching its head and asking why someone would scale the flagpole at the roundabout near Safeway in Main Street and steal the Australian flag.
Club president elect Gary Jans who led the project for the flag pole said there must be some clever monkeys in Monbulk to be able to scale the eight metre aluminium pole.
The Rotary Club installed the flag pole in time for Australia Day celebrations as a part of its community service project to commemorate the centenary of Rotary International from February 1905 to February 2005.
Mr Jans said the funds for the project were raised over 18 months and culminated in an official flag raising ceremony on Australia Day.
He said it was ‘indeed sad’ that it (the flag) only flew for eight weeks before it was stolen.
Mr Jans said he noticed the flag was missing on Friday night and couldn’t believe it.
“I was driving down to the church on Friday night and notice the flag was missing, and I initially thought that it was just because it was dark that I couldn’t see it, so we drove around the roundabout.
“I then got my flash light out and found that the flag was missing,” he said.
Mr Jans said he then went and spoke to RSL members to see if they had taken it down for some reason, which they hadn’t.
He said Monbulk police had been notified of the incident.
“Whoever did this was either very light or skinny as the pole is only made out of aluminium and is only about 3cm wide,” Mr Jans said.
Mr Jans said the club was now purchasing a necklace weight to put on the bottom of the flag to help make it more difficult for future thieves.
He said the club was also writing to Casey MP Tony Smith to get a replacement flag.