Flag of Australia

What the flag of Australia looks like

The flag of Australia is a dark blue field, with a width twice its height (2:1). It has three parts, each with a separate meaning:

• The Union Jack sits in the upper hoist quarter (the canton). It is the flag of the United Kingdom, combining the crosses of St George, St Andrew and St Patrick.
• The Commonwealth Star is a large white star below the Union Jack, in the lower hoist section. It has seven points.
• The Southern Cross is a constellation shown in the fly half, made up of five white stars. Four larger ones have seven points, and the smaller, central one, Epsilon Crucis, has only five.

The Southern Cross is shown in the same shape as in the sky: one star above, one below, and two on the sides, with the small one in between and slightly to the right. In total the flag shows six stars: the Commonwealth Star and the five stars of the Southern Cross.

The flag is a variant of the British Blue Ensign, the flag that once marked government ships. Other flags that follow this pattern include the flags of New Zealand, Fiji and Tuvalu. The Australian flag appears in small form as the Australia flag emoji.

Australia flag meaning and symbolism

The Union Jack represents Australia's origin as a group of British colonies and its membership of the Commonwealth. It is the reason the Australian flag looks like the flag of the United Kingdom, and it is the most debated part of the design.

The Commonwealth Star stands for the federation of Australia. It originally had six points, one for each of the six federating colonies that formed the Commonwealth in 1901. In 1908 a seventh point was added to symbolise the Territory of Papua and any future territories, so today the star is understood to stand for the states and territories together.

The Southern Cross is one of the most distinctive constellations visible in the Southern Hemisphere and has been used to represent Australia since the early days of British settlement. The flag shows five of its stars: four larger ones with seven points, and a smaller one with five. Ivor Evans, one of the flag's designers, also linked the four main stars to the virtues of justice, prudence, temperance and fortitude.

The colors of the flag are the red, white and blue of the Union Jack; the Flags Act does not specify the shades.

History of the Australian flag

Before federation, each Australian colony had its own flag, usually a British ensign with a badge. When the six colonies joined to form the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901, the new government held an international competition for a flag design. More than 30,000 entries were received. Five entrants with very similar designs shared the prize, and the result was announced in Melbourne on 3 September 1901, when the flag was first flown from the Exhibition Building.

King Edward VII officially approved a slightly simplified design on 11 February 1903, which made all the Southern Cross stars seven-pointed except the smallest. The Blue Ensign was used by the government, and the Red Ensign was kept for merchant ships, and it is still the Australian merchant flag. In 1908 the Commonwealth Star was changed from six to seven points. The Flags Act of 1953, which received royal assent in 1954, confirmed the Blue Ensign as the Australian National Flag. Until then, many Australians had also continued to use the Union Jack as their flag.

Australia has more than one official flag. In 1995 the Aboriginal Flag and the Torres Strait Islander Flag were proclaimed flags of Australia under the Flags Act, alongside flags such as the naval and air force ensigns.

Debate about changing the flag has gone on since the 1980s, and the main argument is about the Union Jack, which some people see as a reminder of colonial history. Since 1996 the Flags Act has required a plebiscite before the flag can be changed, and the flag has not been changed.

Flags that look like the Australian flag

The flag of New Zealand is the most similar. It also has a blue field, a Union Jack canton and the Southern Cross, but the stars are red with white borders and there are four of them, with no Commonwealth Star. The flags of Fiji and Tuvalu are also based on the Blue Ensign. You can compare them on the page with all country flags.