Commonwealth of Australia

The Australian National Flag

The flag of Australia was selected after a competition held to find a flag to represent the new nation as the 6 states of Australia entered into a Federation, creating the Commonwealth of Australia.The winning design was picked, and flown for the first time in Melbourne on the 3rd of September, 1901. A flag with slight variations was approved by King Edward VII in 1902. Over the next few years, modifications and alterations occurred and the final design was gazetted in 1934 and finally recognised as the National Flag of Australia by parliamentary statute in 1954.

The flag itself is predominantly blue, with the Union Jack in the upper hoist canton. A large 7 point white star, known as the Commonwealth Star is positioned underneath. In the fly, is a representation of the Southern Cross constellation is made up of 5 white stars. 4 are 7 point stars, 1 is a small 5 point star.

The inclusion of the Union Jack is seen as either a symbol of Australia's history as part of the British Empire, or as loyalty to the afore-mentioned Empire. 

Originally, the Commonwealth Star only had 6 points, 1 for each of the 6 states of Australia. However, in 1908 it was changed with a 7th point added. This was to stand for the state of Papua, and any potential new states and territories to be added in the future.

The Southern Cross was adopted as it had been used to represent Australia from the early days of Britain's involvement with Australia. It is the brightest constellation in the southern sky. Ivor Evans, one of the designers, intended for each of the main stars to also stand for the 4 moral virtues assigned by Dante to the stars in the constellation. Justice, prudence, fortitude, and temperance.  The stars all had different numbers of points on them originally because the designer wanted the number of points to represent the brightness of the star in the night sky. However, to ease manufacture, the stars where standardised. The 4 large stars now had 7 points, and the smallest has 5.

There has been a growing debate over the Australian flag. Whilst the majority of Australians support the status quo and maintaining the current flag, there is a growing voice arguing for change. The argument goes that having the Union Jack on the flag does not show Australia as a modern, independent nation. Some have expressed an interest in a simple change, replacing the Union Jack with the Aboriginal flag, highlighting Australia's real history.

Another, more up to date design is more simple. Taking out the Union Jack, moving the Commonwealth Star up, and changing it to gold.

This debate goes on, however, until it changes, Australians will fly the current flag with pride!