The Australian flag: meaning, design and colours

The Australian National Flag consists of three elements, according to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C): the Union Jack, the Commonwealth Star and the Southern Cross, on a dark blue field. Its design is fixed by law in Schedule 1 of the Flags Act 1953, which describes each star by its position, size and number of points.

The Union Jack

The Union Jack occupies the upper quarter next to the staff, the canton. According to PM&C, it acknowledges the history of British settlement in Australia. The Union Jack, the common name of the Union Flag of the United Kingdom, combines the red cross of St George for England, the white diagonal cross of St Andrew for Scotland and, since 1801, the red diagonal cross of St Patrick for Ireland.

The Commonwealth Star

Below the Union Jack is a large white star with seven points. According to the Flags Act, it represents the six states of Australia and the territories, and it points to the centre of the St George’s Cross in the Union Jack. PM&C explains that the star had six points on the flag of 1901, one for each former colony, and that the seventh point was added in 1908 to represent the Commonwealth territories and to match the star on the Commonwealth Coat of Arms. The star is sometimes called the Federation Star.

The Southern Cross

The five white stars in the fly represent the Southern Cross, a constellation that can be easily seen in the night skies of the Southern Hemisphere, according to PM&C. Its formal name is Crux Australis, and its stars are named Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon in order of brightness. Four of them have seven points; the smallest, Epsilon, has five. In the winning designs of 1901, each star had a different number of points, from nine to five, to show its brightness; the design was simplified in 1903.

The design in the Flags Act

Schedule 1 of the Flags Act gives the dimensions as fractions of the width of the flag, which it defines as the measurement of the hoist edge:

The inner diameter of each star is four-ninths of its outer diameter. The flag is made in the proportions 1:2. More in the guide to flag sizes.

The colours

According to PM&C, the colour references are PANTONE 280 for the blue and PANTONE 185 for the red. Victoria’s state flag and the Northern Territory flag use a different Southern Cross, with stars of different numbers of points to show their brightness.

Protection of the flag

Since the Flags Amendment Act 1998, section 3 of the Flags Act states that the flag ceases to be the Australian National Flag only if a new flag is chosen by a majority of the electors voting in every state and territory, with the existing flag among the choices put to them. Parliament decides how such a vote is held.

Apart from rules on importing goods that bear the flag and on registering it in trade marks, the law does not regulate how the flag is flown. The protocol for its use, including the rule that it is not flown upside down or used as a cover, is guidance from PM&C, described in the guide to flag flying rules.

The flag in history

The design goes back to the competition held after Federation in 1901, in which five almost identical designs shared the prize. The flag first flew on 3 September 1901, now Australian National Flag Day, and became the national flag in law in 1954. The story is told in the guide to flagpole history, and the other official flags in the guide to flag types.