Difference between revisions of "HERE"
(Created page with "'''The Hanlon – Millane Eureka Flag Fragment''' == Provenance == Since my earliest memory, I have been told about "our" small piece of the original Eureka Flag that w...") |
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| − | '''The Hanlon – Millane Eureka Flag Fragment''' | + | <!-- '''The Hanlon – Millane Eureka Flag Fragment''' |
| + | July 2021 | ||
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| + | By Brian Millane (reproduced with permission) | ||
== Provenance == | == Provenance == | ||
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::A tiny fragment of the flag flown at the [[Eureka Stockade]] rebellion in 1854 has sold at auction for over $32,000. Melbourne auctioneers Mossgreen sold the piece of Prussian blue cloth on Monday for $32,240. | ::A tiny fragment of the flag flown at the [[Eureka Stockade]] rebellion in 1854 has sold at auction for over $32,000. Melbourne auctioneers Mossgreen sold the piece of Prussian blue cloth on Monday for $32,240. | ||
The new owners are the Victorian Trades Hall, who ran a crowd-funding campaign to purchase the piece of Australia’s history. The campaign raised over $20,000 toward the purchase. | The new owners are the Victorian Trades Hall, who ran a crowd-funding campaign to purchase the piece of Australia’s history. The campaign raised over $20,000 toward the purchase. | ||
| + | ::Victorian Trades Hall secretary Luke Hilakari says the fragment will be safely kept at Trades Hall for the public to view. | ||
| + | ::“It will be a proud day for Trades Hall next year when we have it on display,” Hilakari said in a Facebook video posted to the Trades Hall site. | ||
| + | ::“We’re going to encourage everyone to come and see it. Well done, comrades. Solidarity.” | ||
| + | Former owner Adrian Millane says he’s pleased the piece of flag will remain in public hands. | ||
| + | ::“I am very happy, moreso with WHO got it,” said Millane. | ||
| + | ::“I always hoped for a public body (to purchase it). | ||
| + | He says the sale will enable him to pursue the cause of an orphanage in India where he alleges sexual abuse took place. | ||
| + | ::“This trauma is tied to why I felt needed to sell it, to raise the profile of the severe issues of corruption preventing real child protection - and of course to have funds to support my pursuit of such reforms,” he said. | ||
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| + | == But the Proceeds Were Lost == | ||
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| + | As I understand it, the Victorian Trades Hall Council paid for the Hanlon-Millane fragment and took possession of it. As was their practice, Mossgreens delayed payment to the vendor, Adrian, thus allowing other events to overtake the transaction. | ||
| + | On December 26, 2017, the Sydney Morning Herald published this headline (and an extract of the related article is included here): | ||
| + | ::Auction house Mossgreen enters voluntary administration | ||
| + | ::". . . . On December 21 Mossgreen, which has branches in Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland, thanked customers via its Facebook page for their 2017 support and announced its holiday office closure. | ||
| + | The next day, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission announced that administrators had been appointed for Mossgreen Pty Ltd. . . . | ||
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| + | That article, and others like it in that week and later, contained assertions by the owner of Mossgreen that the company would restructure and continue normal trading operations and that the vendors would not be out of pocket. However, the Administrator, BDO, having assessed the assets, advised that these totalled $3.2 million but debts were $13.8 million. Mossgreen never traded again. | ||
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| + | The Administrator's report, delivered in April 2018, documented numerous improper practices, including the use of 'reserved' funds, owned by vendors, to prop up the failing business. Whilst the specific purpose bank account did hold what was left of the vendors' money, by law, each would have had to sue the Trustee of Mossgreen in bankruptcy in order to get what was rightfully theirs. | ||
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| + | By September, 2018, the then liquidators, BDO, had informed the Federal Court that none of the vendor creditors had made a claim. This was because there was a secured creditor, Jadig, and it would be a waste of money – via legal costs – to try and 'get blood from a stone'. By Court Order, the last of the money belonging to the unpaid vendor creditors was then absorbed into the liquidated company's general assets. In short, there was no money left for anyone after the priority categories of creditors had been paid: the high priority creditors were the liquidator (for fees), the Commonwealth (for employees' benefits) and the secured creditor, Jadig (for a secured loan). So, Adrian received nothing from the sale of the Hanlon-Millane fragment of the [[Eureka Stockade]] Flag. | ||
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| + | It is some comfort that the fragment is owned by an organisation that will respect and preserve it; and that the family can still visit it at the Trades Hall in Melbourne | ||
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| + | == Also See == | ||
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| + | [[Eureka Flag]] | ||
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| + | [[Francis Hanlon]] | ||
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| + | --> | ||
