Australia Day enthusiast David Goodall plans to spend his favourite day of the year cooking up some lamb, cranking up Slim Dusty and sipping a Toohey's Old among the 90 Australian flags that mask his front lawn.
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"I'd like to pose a question to the whole of Canberra," Mr Goodall – who prefers to be called "Spurs" – said.
"If you call yourself Australian, why don't you fly a flag on Australia Day?"
He said he's had the nickname since a ranger gave him a pair of spurs at 14 years old, that he still owns at the age of 71. He's been wearing cowboy boots "for donkey's years".
The retired horserider has gone to great lengths to prepare his Cook home for January 26, sprinkling the outside of his home with dozens of flags and designing a poster that reads "G'Day Cobber. Have a bonza Australia day."
It boggles him that red and green lights swarm the capital's streets in December, but he rarely sees Australian flags fly in the lead-up to Australia Day.
"I think we've just gone too much overboard to be politically correct and not offend anybody and we are frightened to fly our own flag in our own country and I think that is a shame," he said.
"I have had a few people make comments and say it's political, I shouldn't fly flags, but I just ignore them and say we're in Australia, it's an Australia flag and I've got the right to celebrate Australia day."
The patriot developed a passion for Australian memorabilia after he arrived from England at the age of eight. He likens his house to a "man cave" or "museum" for its wealth of heritage items.
It's the third year he has decorated his "museum's" exterior with Australian flags, and hopes to put up 200 flags next year.
This year he'll sit under his Australia Day umbrella beside his 2-year-old old blue heeler who he named after his idol, Australian bushman RM Williams. Mr Goodall dresses in RM Williams gear "right down to the jocks and socks".
"If anybody wants to come and have a yarn and talk about Australia, I can tell them what Canberra was like in 1954," he said.
"And I'll show them why they shouldn't be ashamed to fly [a flag] all year 'round."
