‘Tracing our roots; surgeons, surcoats, and symbols.’ In ‘The Mantle of Surgery’, a history of the first 75 years of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, the author, Professor Wyn Beasley, designated Chapter 3 as ‘Trappings’. He utilised this term to describe how the embryonic college was able to incorporate itself under Victorian State Legislation and accordingly, then apply to the College of Arms in London to be granted ‘Letters Patent’: this document contains the ‘blazon’ defining the specifics of the Arms of the College. Subsequently the Royal College of Surgeons of England presented the Australasian College with a Great Mace as a mark of fraternal respect and affection: the Mace representing then and now the great authority of the College and its Council. This paper will outline how these ‘trappings’ came into being.