   #copyright

Flag of Australia

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: General Geography

   National flag and state ensign. Flag ratio: 1:2
   Enlarge
   National flag and state ensign. Flag ratio: 1:2
   The Australian Flag at full mast.
   Enlarge
   The Australian Flag at full mast.

   The flag of Australia was chosen in 1901 from entries in a worldwide
   design competition held following Federation. It was approved by
   Australian and British authorities over the next few years, although
   the exact specifications of the flag were changed several times both
   intentionally and as a result of confusion. The current specifications
   were published in 1934, and in 1954 the flag became legally recognised
   as the "Australian National Flag". The flag is a defaced Blue Ensign: a
   blue field with the Union Flag in the upper hoist quarter, and a large
   white seven-pointed star known as the Commonwealth Star in the lower
   hoist. The fly contains a representation of the Southern Cross
   constellation, made up of five white stars - one small five-pointed
   star and four, larger, seven-pointed stars.

   In addition to the Blue Ensign there are several additional Australian
   flags, including the Aboriginal flag, the Torres Strait Islander flag
   and the flags of the Defence Forces. The design of the Australian flag
   is the subject of debate within Australia, with some advocating its
   redesign in connection with the republican movement.

Design

   The official flag of Australia is defined in the Flags Act 1953. The
   Act became law on 14 February 1954 when Elizabeth II Queen of Australia
   gave Royal Assent in person. Section 3 of the Act specifies that the
   Blue Ensign is the "Australian National Flag". The Act specifies the
   colours and construction details for this flag, and the Australian Red
   Ensign (also known as the Australian Merchant Flag).

Symbolism

   The Australian flag uses three prominent symbols, the Union Flag (often
   known as the Union Jack), the Commonwealth Star and the Southern Cross.
   The Union Flag is commonly thought to reflect Australia's history as a
   collection of British colonies, although a more historic view sees its
   inclusion in the design as demonstrating loyalty to the British Empire.
   The five white stars of the fly of the flag represent the Southern
   Cross. The Southern Cross (or Crux) is the brightest constellation
   visible in the Southern Hemisphere and has been used to represent
   Australia and New Zealand since the early days of British settlement.
   Each of these stars has seven points except for the smallest star which
   has only five. Ivor Evans, one of the flag's designers, intended the
   Southern Cross to refer also to the four moral virtues ascribed to the
   four main stars by Dante: justice, prudence, temperance and fortitude.
   The large seven-pointed star below the Union Flag is the Commonwealth
   or Federation Star which represents the federation of the colonies of
   Australia on 1 January 1901. There is one point for each of the six
   original states, and one which now represents all of the Commonwealth's
   internal and external territories.

   The blue colour has been described as representing Australia as an
   island continent, as a symbol of the journey humans had to make to
   reach Australia, as the blue sky, and as a remnant of the Eureka Flag
   which also had a blue background.

Construction

   Construction sheet for the Flag of Australia. The length of the Flag is
   twice the width.
   Enlarge
   Construction sheet for the Flag of Australia. The length of the Flag is
   twice the width.

   Under the Flags Act, the Australian National Flag must meet the
   following specifications:
    a. the Union Jack occupying the upper quarter next the staff;
    b. a large white star (representing the 6 States of Australia and the
       Territories) in the centre of the lower quarter next the pye and
       pointing direct to the centre of St George's Cross in the Union
       Jack;
    c. 5 white stars (representing the Southern Cross) in the half of the
       flag further from the staff.

   The location of the stars is as follows:
     * Commonwealth Star – 7 pointed star, centred in lower hoist.
     * Alpha Crucis – 7 pointed star, straight below centre fly 1/6 up
       from bottom edge.
     * Beta Crucis – 7 pointed star, 1/4 of the way left and 1/16 up from
       the centre fly.
     * Gamma Crucis – 7 pointed star, straight above centre fly 1/6 down
       from top edge.
     * Delta Crucis – 7 pointed star, 2/9 of the way right and 31/240 up
       from the centre fly.
     * Epsilon Crucis – 5 pointed star, 1/10 of the way right and 1/24
       down from the centre fly.

   The outer diameter of the Commonwealth Star is 3/10 of the flag's
   width, while that of the stars in the Southern Cross is 1/7 of the
   flag's width, except for Epsilon, for which the fraction is 1/12. Each
   star's inner diameter is 4/9 of the outer diameter. The flag's width is
   the measurement of the hoist edge of the flag (the distance from top to
   bottom).

   The colours of the flag, although not specified by the Flags Act, have
   been specified by the Awards and National Symbols Branch of the
   Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
   Scheme  Blue Red White
   Pantone 280  185 Safe

History

   Before 1901, Australia was a collection of distinct British colonies.
   The Union Flag, as the flag of the British Empire, was often used to
   represent them collectively; and each colony also had its flag based on
   the Union Flag. Two attempts were made throughout the nineteenth
   century to design a national flag. The first such attempt was the
   National Colonial Flag created in 1823-1824 (when New South Wales was
   still the only British colony in Australia), by Captain John Nicholson
   and Captain John Bingle. The flag never achieved public support. The
   most popular "national" flag of the period was the 1831 Federation
   Flag, also designed by Nicholson. The Federation Flag proved immensely
   popular, and was widely used on the east coast of Australia for over 70
   years, particularly by the federation movement. These flags, and many
   others such as the Eureka Flag, which came into use at the Eureka
   Stockade in 1854, featured stars representing the Southern Cross. The
   oldest known flag to show the stars arranged as they are seen in the
   sky is the Anti-Transportation League Flag, which is similar in design
   to the present National Flag.


   National Colonial Flag Australian Federation Flag Eureka Flag
   Anti-Transportation League Flag

   After Federation on 1 January 1901, the new Commonwealth Government
   held a design competition for a new national flag in April. The
   competition attracted over 32,000 entries, equivalent to around 1% of
   the Australian population at that time. The designs were judged on
   seven criteria: loyalty to the Empire, Federation, history, heraldry,
   distinctiveness, utility and cost of manufacture. The majority of
   designs incorporated the Union Flag and the Southern Cross, but native
   animals were also popular. Five almost identical entries were chosen as
   the winning design, and their designers shared the 200 pounds prize
   money. They were: Ivor Evans, a fourteen-year-old schoolboy from
   Melbourne; Leslie John Hawkins, a teenager apprenticed to an optician
   from Sydney; Egbert John Nuttall, an architect from Melbourne; Annie
   Dorrington, an artist from Perth; and William Stevens, a ship’s officer
   from Auckland, New Zealand. The five winners received 40 pounds each.

   The flag's initial reception was mixed. The then republican magazine
   The Bulletin labelled it,

     a staled réchauffé of the British flag, with no artistic virtue, no
     national significance... Minds move slowly: and Australia is still
     Britain's little boy. What more natural than that he should accept
     his father's cut-down garments, – lacking the power to protest, and
     only dimly realising his will. That bastard flag is a true symbol of
     the bastard state of Australian opinion.

   The Flags Act 1953 specified the Blue Ensign as the National Flag of
   Australia and the Red Ensign as a civil flag.
   Enlarge
   The Flags Act 1953 specified the Blue Ensign as the National Flag of
   Australia and the Red Ensign as a civil flag.

   On 3 September, 1901, the new Australian flag flew for the first time
   atop the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne. A simplified version
   of the competition-winning design was officially approved as the Flag
   of Australia by King Edward VII in 1902. The number of points on the
   stars of the Southern Cross on today's Australian flag differs from the
   original design in that the stars varied between five and nine,
   reflecting the relative brightness of each in the night sky. The
   British Admiralty, to increase ease of manufacture, standardised the
   Southern Cross by giving the four biggest stars seven points and five
   for the faintest Epsilon Crucis. The Commonwealth Star originally had
   only 6 points, representing the six federating colonies. However, this
   changed in 1908 when a seventh point was added to symbolise the
   Territory of Papua. At this time, the original design of the Southern
   Cross was used, and there was confusion on this issue until a complete
   specification for the current design was published in the Commonwealth
   Gazette in 1934.

   The Australian flag existed in two versions, the Australian Red Ensign
   for merchant ships and the Blue Ensign for government use. There
   remained confusion as to which flag should be flown by ordinary
   citizens on land. By traditional British understanding, the Blue Ensign
   would be reserved for Commonwealth Government use, with State and local
   governments, private organisations and individuals all using the Red
   Ensign. However, in the 1940s, successive governments encouraged
   private citizens to use the Australian Blue Ensign as the national
   emblem. In 1951, King George VI approved a recommendation by the
   Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies that the Australian Blue
   Ensign be adopted as the National Flag.

   This status was formalised on 14 February 1954, when Elizabeth II gave
   Royal Assent to the Flags Act 1953. This was the first Australian
   legislation to receive the monarch's Assent in person, and was timed to
   coincide with the Queen's visit to the country. The Act also gives
   powers to the Governor-General to approve new official flags. In 1996,
   the Flags Act was amended by stipulating rules for changing the
   National Flag's design; to replace the flag entirely, a referendum must
   be held.

Protocol

   Guidelines for flying the flag are laid out in a pamphlet entitled "The
   Australian National Flag", which is published by the Australian
   Government on an infrequent basis. The guidelines say that the
   Australian National Flag, the Australian Aboriginal flag and the Torres
   Strait Islander flag are allowed to be flown on every day of the year.
   The National Flag must always be flown in a position superior to that
   of any other flag or ensign when flown in Australia or on Australian
   territory, and it should always be flown aloft and free. The flag must
   be flown in all government buildings and displayed in polling stations
   when there is a national election or referendum.
   The flagpole on Parliament House is 81 metres tall and the flag
   measures 12.8 m by 6.4 m, about the size of half a tennis court.
   Enlarge
   The flagpole on Parliament House is 81 metres tall and the flag
   measures 12.8 m by 6.4 m, about the size of half a tennis court.

   The Prime Minister's Department also advises that the flag should only
   be flown during daylight hours, unless it is illuminated. Two flags
   should not be flown from the same flagpole. When the flag is flown at
   half-mast, it should be positioned one flag-width down from the top of
   the pole. Flags are flown at half-mast on government buildings:
     * On the death of the Sovereign – from the time of announcement of
       the death up to and including the funeral. On the day the accession
       of the new Sovereign is proclaimed, it is customary to raise the
       flag to the top of the mast from 11 a.m..
     * On the death of a member of a royal family.
     * On the death of the Governor-General or a former Governor-General.
     * On the death of a distinguished Australian citizen. Flags in any
       locality may be flown at half-mast on the death of a notable local
       citizen or on the day, or part of the day, of their funeral.
     * On the death of the head of state of another country with which
       Australia has diplomatic relations – the flag would be flown on the
       day of the funeral.
     * On ANZAC day the flag is flown half-mast until noon.
     * On Remembrance Day flags are flown at peak till 10:30 am, at
       half-mast from 10:30 am to 11:03 am, then at peak the remainder of
       the day.

   The Department provides a subscription-based email service called the
   Commonwealth Flag Network, which gives information on national
   occasions to fly the flag at half-mast as well as national days of
   commemoration and celebration of the flag.

   The Australian National Flag may be used for commercial or advertising
   purposes without formal permission as long as the flag is used in a
   dignified manner and reproduced completely and accurately; it should
   not be defaced by overprinting with words or illustrations, it should
   not be covered by other objects in displays, and all symbolic parts of
   the flag should be identifiable.

   There have been several attempts to make desecration of the Australian
   flag a crime. In 1953, during the second reading debate on the Flags
   Act, the leader of the Opposition, Arthur Calwell, unsuccessfully
   called for provisions to be added to the bill to criminalise
   desecration. Michael Cobb introduced private member’s bills in 1989,
   1990, 1991 and 1992 to ban desecration, but on each occasion the bill
   lapsed. In 2002, the leader of the National Party, John Anderson,
   proposed to introduce laws banning desecration of the Australian flag,
   a call which attracted support from some parliamentarians both in his
   own party and the senior Coalition partner, the Liberal Party. However,
   the Prime Minister, John Howard, rejected the calls stating that "...in
   the end I guess it's part of the sort of free speech code that we have
   in this country." In 2003, the Australian Flags (Desecration of the
   Flag) Bill was tabled in Parliament by Trish Draper without support
   from Howard and subsequently lapsed.

National Flag Day

   In 1996, the Governor-General, Sir William Deane, issued a proclamation
   establishing an annual Australian National Flag Day, to be held on 3
   September. Flag Day celebrations had been occurring in Sydney since
   1984. They were initiated by vexillographer John Christian Vaughan to
   commemorate the first occasion when the Flag was flown in 1901. On Flag
   Day, ceremonies are held in some major centres, and the
   Governor-General and some politicians attend or release statements to
   the media. Flag Day is not a public holiday.

Centenary Flag

   On the centenary of the first flying of the flag, 3 September 2001, the
   Australian National Flag Association presented the Prime Minister with
   a flag intended to replace the missing original flag. This flag was not
   a replica of the original flag, on which the Commonwealth Star had only
   six points, but was a current Australian National Flag with a seven
   pointed Commonwealth Star. The flag has a special headband, including a
   cardinal red stripe and the inscription

     The Centenary Flag. Presented to the Hon John Howard MP, Prime
     Minister of Australia on behalf of the people of Australia by the
     Australian National Flag Association on 3 September 2001 at the
     Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne to commemorate the first flying
     of the Australian National Flag on 3 September 1901 attended by the
     Rt Hon Sir Edmund Barton MHR, Prime Minister of Australia.

   A warrant authorising the use of the Centenary Flag under section 6 of
   the Flags Act was issued by the Governor-General and the flag is now
   used as the official flag of state on important occasions.

Other Australian flags

   Under Section 5 of the Flags Act 1953, the Governor-General may
   proclaim flags other than the National Flag and the Red Ensign as flags
   or ensigns of Australia. At this point, five flags have been appointed
   in this manner. The first two were the Royal Australian Navy Ensign and
   the Royal Australian Air Force Ensign, the flags used by the Royal
   Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Australian Army
   uses the Blue Ensign. The Air Force and the Navy flew the appropriate
   British ensigns (the White Ensign and the Royal Air Force Ensign) until
   the adoption of similar ensigns based on the Australian National Flag
   in 1948 and 1967 respectively. The current Navy and Air Force Ensigns
   were officially appointed in 1967 and 1982 respectively.

   In 1995, the Aboriginal Flag and the Torres Strait Islander Flag were
   also appointed flags of Australia. While mainly seen as a gesture of
   reconciliation, this recognition caused a small amount of controversy
   at the time, with then opposition leader John Howard describing it as
   divisive. Some indigenous people, such as the flag's designer Harold
   Thomas, felt that the government was appropriating their flag, saying
   it "doesn't need any more recognition".

   The flag most recently appointed under Section 5 is the Australian
   Defence Force Ensign, in 2000. This flag is used to represent the
   Defence Force when more than one branch of the military is involved,
   such as at the Australian Defence Force Academy, and by the Minister
   for Defence.


   Royal Australian Navy Ensign Royal Australian Air Force Ensign
   Australian Aboriginal Flag Torres Strait Islander Flag Australian
   Defence Force Ensign

   In addition to the seven flags declared under the Flags Act there are
   two additional Commonwealth flags, the Australian Civil Aviation Ensign
   and Australian Customs Flag, eight Vice-Regal flags and nine State and
   Territory flags that are recognised as official flags through other
   means.

The flag debate

   A poster calling for a redesign of the Australian Flag, released by
   Ausflag in 2000 to coincide with the 2000 Summer Olympics.
   Enlarge
   A poster calling for a redesign of the Australian Flag, released by
   Ausflag in 2000 to coincide with the 2000 Summer Olympics.

   In connection with the issue of republicanism in Australia, there have
   been low-key but persistent debates over whether or not the Australian
   flag should be changed in order to remove the Union Flag from the
   canton. This debate has come to a head at a number of occasions, such
   as in the period immediately preceding the Australian Bicentenary in
   1988, and also during the Prime Ministership of Paul Keating, who
   publicly supported a change in the flag and was famously quoted as
   saying:

     I do not believe that the symbols and the expression of the full
     sovereignty of Australian nationhood can ever be complete while we
     have a flag with the flag of another country on the corner of it.

   There are two lobby groups involved in the flag debate, the pro-change
   group Ausflag and the Australian National Flag Association (ANFA), who
   want to keep the current flag. The primary arguments for keeping the
   flag cite historic precedence, while the arguments for changing the
   flag are based around the idea that the current flag does not
   accurately depict Australia's status as an independent and
   multicultural nation. Ausflag periodically campaigns for flag change in
   association with national events, like the 2000 Summer Olympics and
   holds flag design competitions, while ANFA's activities include
   promotion of the current design through events like National Flag Day.
   Opinion polls indicate that Australians are split on the issues of flag
   change; for example, an AGB-McNair poll in 1995 that asked, "If a
   suitable design for a new Australian flag were found, would you be
   likely to support or oppose changing the flag in time for the 2000
   Olympics?", found support among 50% of respondents and opposition from
   46%. A 2004 NEWSPOLL which asked "Are you personally in favour or
   against changing the Australian flag so as to remove the Union Jack
   emblem?" was supported by 37% of respondents, and opposed by 57% with
   11% uncommitted.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Australia"
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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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