Vice-Regal Standard of the Governor-General of Australia
Sydney Morning Herald 28 January 2014
Governor-General Peter Cosgrove: A rough diamond's time to shine
excerpts
Australia's new Governor-General, Peter Cosgrove, won the Military Cross for gallantry as a young platoon commander in Vietnam, but he remained all but an unknown soldier to most Australians until, 30 years later, he was sent to East Timor. There, he would gain the loyalty of the soldiers under his command, initially by occupying a modest bunk in their quarters; draw the plaudits of the international community and the thanks of the East Timorese - former guerilla leader Xanana Gusmao presented his resistance uniform as thanks, literally giving the shirt off his back; and won the status of hero across Australia.
As commander of the United Nations-backed East Timor peacekeeping mission, interFet, in 1999, then Major-General Cosgrove's military career was suddenly supercharged. He returned to Australia to be promoted to Lieutenant-General and to be appointed Chief of the Army. In 2001, he was named Australian of the Year, an honour he accepted on behalf of all those who had served in East Timor. A year later, in 2002, his 37-year military career reached its pinnacle. He was a full General and Chief of the Defence Force.
In 2006, General Cosgrove again gained national prominence when he took charge of rebuilding north Queensland areas destroyed by Cyclone Larry. The Queensland government honoured him by naming a Townsville suburb Cosgrove. Prime Minister Tony Abbott [has capped] General Cosgrove's public career with the keys to Yarralumla and Admiralty House. General Cosgrove won't find it hard to navigate around Yarralumla - in 1972 he served as aide de camp to Governor-General Sir Paul Hasluck.
Sources say the Prime Minister chose a widely admired military man like General Cosgrove partly because he was keen to ensure next year's 100-year anniversary of Anzac Day and Australia's role in World War I was granted a strong vice-regal presence. General Cosgrove is a former board member of the Australian War Memorial and is a member of the NSW Anzac Centenary committee.
He has the added benefit for Mr Abbott, a keen monarchist, of being an avowed supporter of a constitutional monarchy.
Yarralumla is a long way from what were in the 1950s the crowded terraces of Paddington in Sydney where Peter Cosgrove grew up, the son of a soldier.
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v The appointment of General Cosgrove as G-G appears to have fairly strong public support.