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The Australian flag is defined by the Flags Act 1953, the current version of which can be found at ComLaw. The construction details are defined in the schedule to the act.
Jonathan Dixon, 30 September 2008
All the stars have an inner diameter (circle on which the inner corners rest) of 4/9 the outer diameter (circle of outer corners), even the 5-point star. The positions of the stars are as follows:
The outer radius of the 7-pointed stars in the Southern Cross should be 1/14 the width of the fly (the "height" of the flag). For the 5-pointed star it should be 1/24. The Commonwealth star should be 3/20. In each case, the inner radius should be 4/9 of the outer radius.
Jonathan Dixon, 3 February 2003
A good template of the Australian flag can be found at http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/images/flag_template.jpg. Below is a different representation:
![[Construction Sheet for Australian flag]](../images/a/au'.gif)
by Mello Luchtenberg and Jonathan Dixon, 3 February 2003
According to flag description charts issued by the Department of External Affairs between 1901 and about 1916, these are the differences between the original 1901 flag design, the 1903 version and the current (1908) one:
Many photographs and artworks of the early Australian Blue Ensign and Australian Red Ensign show a very large Commonwealth Star, often spanning virtually the full width of the lower hoist. This appears to have been a design feature of one or more of the five entrants in the 1901 Federal Flag Competition. As many interim flags were made up to resemble the images of the competition flags as circulated in the press reports of the event, a large Commonwealth Star was very common in the early days. After the precise flag design was finalised in 1901 with Commonwealth Stars of an outer diameter three-tenths of the flag width, flags with these large stars gradually faded away.
There were criticisms of the large Commonwealth Star. In 1952 the Royal Australian Historical Society
described it as 'unduly large and clumsy' and the periodical 'Australasian' of 7 September 1901 at
page 534 referred to it as 'suggestive of a plate'.
Jeff Thomson, 8 February 2022
The usual understanding seems to be that both the Australian and New Zealand
flags use Pantone 280 for the blue, to match the British Union Jack, but I'm not
sure of an official source for that in the case of New Zealand. The Australian
Government does give specific RGB specifications for representing the flag in
digital media.
Jonathan Dixon, 17 October 2010
The PMS colours for the Australian National Flag seem to have been the
subject of changes over time in the official pronouncements, but these have not
been fully reflected by the production methods of Australian flag makers.
Traditionally, the blue version of the Australian flag has been a dark shade
of blue. Whilst no Pantone colour shades were published, the Department of the
Prime Minister had for a number of years recommended the blue shade to be PMS
281 and the red shade PMS 185. These were the colours used by the main
Australian flag manufacturers and they correspond closely to the colours used in
the coloured illustration in Schedule 1 of the Flags Act 1953. In 2000, the
Australian Government issued the official booklet "Australian Symbols". This
publication, for the first time specified the shade of blue as PMS 280
(materially lighter than the traditional shade). John Howard became Prime
Minister in 1996.
Why has this occurred? There was never a formal
announcement of a change, and it is possible that the change occurred due to
bureaucratic ignorance and indifference. Alternatively, there has been a "hidden
agenda" which has not been explained.
The ignorance and indifference
explanation would centre on the proliferation of cheap imported flags, and some
nameless public servant (or consultant on publications) looked at such a flag
and estimated PMS 280 as the shade, ignoring the corporate memory that had been
built up by previous governments. The "Australian Symbols" booklet had been
prepared with the assistance of Four Design Group, who did a good job on the
graphic design, but would have had no knowledge of flags. I am unaware of there
having been any consultation with flag experts or manufacturers in the drafting
of that publication. Another possible explanation, based on ignorance, could be
that someone asked what the PMS colours of the Union Jack are. Though there was
no formal process, the shade of the Union Jack was lightened about 15 years ago,
making the colour closer to that of the European Union flag. A public servant or
consultant, being unfamiliar with flags, would therefore have copied the current
British colour and been unaware that he or she was effectively changing the
official colour of the Australian national flag.
One possible "hidden
agenda" could be that the lighter shade of blue is closer to the colour known as
"Royal Blue", and hence a move away from the more republican darker shade used
by the United States (PMS 281) and France (PMS 282). The change also may have
been part of the Howard government's campaign to entrench the flag and to
encourage the development of a conservative mythology around the flag and its
history. Since much of that mythology is based on omissions and distortions and
politicisation, there may have been a hidden agenda that went beyond mere
ignorance of the real traditions and history surrounding the national flag.
The issue came up explicitly in mid 2006 when I provided advice to the
Western Australian Premiers Department about the State Flags Bill and it became
necessary to specify the shades of blue and red. The WA government also
consulted the Commonwealth Government (who were apparently ignorant as to why
the colour shades were those stated in their own publications) and the local
flag manufacturers, who confirmed that they had been ignoring the colour
specification from the Commonwealth government on the grounds that they believed
the Commonwealth's use of PMS 280 was an administrative error and contrary to
the long term practices of Australian manufacturers. The WA government specified
PMS 281 for the blue and 032 for the red, in line with their previous advice to
flag makers and publishers.
I am not in a position to make definitive
comments about the New Zealand flag. However, my observation is that a similar
"colour drift" has been occurring in respect of the New Zealand flag. It is my
belief that traditionally the New Zealand flag was specified as "Navy Blue" and
this would correspond to PMS 281 or PMS 282. However, I note that the French
Pavillons Album states the shade of blue to be PMS 287 - a lighter shade than
PMS 280. My personal observations have been that normally, a well produced New
Zealand flag has the same shade of blue colour as an Australian flag, or if
there is a difference the New Zealand blue is typically darker than the
Australian blue.
The 1989 edition of BR20 "Flags of all Nations" Change 5
defined "Navy Blue" as PMS 282C and "Royal Blue" as PMS 280C. I note that Graham
Bartram's "British Flags and Emblems" defines the Union Jack blue as PMS280.
Ralph Kelly, 18 October 2010
The protocol manual for the London 2012 Olympics (Flags and Anthems Manual
London 2012) provides recommendations for national flag
designs. Each NOC was sent an image of the flag, including the PMS shades, for
their approval by LOCOG. Once this was obtained, LOCOG produced a 60 x 90 cm
version of the flag for further approval. So, while these specs may not be the
official, government, version of each flag, they are certainly what the NOC
believed the flag to be.
For Australia, PMS PMS 280 blue, 185 red. The
vertical version has the UJ at the top left corner with the narrow red stripe in
the upper left, the Commonwealth star at top right; the Southern Cross is shown
horizontally with the top star on the left.
Ian Sumner, 10 October
2012
According to the Flag Manual - Beijing 2008, the PMS colors PMS 032 (red) and
PMS 281 (blue).
Album des Pavillons 2000 [pay00]
gives colors in Pantone and CMYK colors, PMS colors are PMS 287C (blue) and PMS
032C (red), CMYK color are 100-70-0-10 (blue) and 0-90-90-0 (red). (More colors
are also given for other maritime flags.)
Flags and Anthems Manual London
2012 [loc12] gives PMS 280 blue, PMS 185 red.
The Album des Pavillons 2023 already specifies the colors of the flags in
three color systems.
Blue: Pantone 2738c, CMYK 100-92-21-6, RGB 0-0-145
Red: Pantone 2347c, CMYK 0-100-100-0, RGB 225-0-15
(More colors are also
given for other flags.)
Vexilla Mundi gives PMS 281C (blue) and PMS 186C
(red) and PMS White.
Wikipedia gives more sources, and color values come
from Style manual for authors, editors and printers. (Published in 2002):
Pantone: Blue 280 C, Red 185 C, White Safe,
RGB: Blue 0–0–139, Red 255–0–0,
White 255–255–255,
Hex: #00008B, Red #FF0000, White #FFF FFF
CMYK Blue
100–80–0%–0, Red 0–100–100–0, White 0–0–0–0.
Zoltan Horvath, 10 April 2024
My drawings of the Australian national flag use the colours PMS 281 and PMS
186.
I understand that PMS 186 would be equivalent to RGB 227-25-55. RGB
255-0-0 would result in a brighter red than what it should be. This would be
another example of the graphic designers who wrote and illustrated the
Government’s booklet exercising some artistic licence, in my opinion.
Ralph Kelly, 11 April 2024
The Australian and New Zealand flags are both blue with the Union Jack in the canton and the southern cross in the fly. The federation star in the lower hoist is unique to the Australian flag. When comparing the representations of the southern cross on the flags of Australia and New Zealand, we find that
As a summary, the Southern Cross on the Australian flag is larger than the NZ one, and has a slightly thinner shape. The intersection of the "arms" forms the same angle in both flags, but is both slightly lower and slightly more horizontally central than the intersection in the NZ cross, which is more skewed towards the hoist, although these differences are fairly negligible.
Of course, the main difference between the two crosses is that the New
Zealand version has all the stars with 5 points, in red rather than
white, and has one less star, meaning the New Zealand flag contains two
less stars overall.
Jonathan Dixon, 12 February 2003, 31 December 2006
image by António Martins, 29 Jul 2008
If made according to the official statistics, star Epsilon Crucis on the flag of
Australia (as with the other stars) should have a centre imaginary circle
equal to four-ninths the outer, however, many illustrations show it with a
standard five-pointed shape. It occurred to us, therefore, to ask whether
the official prescription was observed in Australian flags actually flown?
Christopher Southworth, 27 July 2008
I have not closely examined this question, but from my casual observations, it appears that most better quality printed flags do show the stars correctly drawn. However, it seems that the practice has developed of "straight-lining" the star points for sewn (appliqué) flags. Thus, not only is the Epsilon star made in the style of a US star, but all the seven pointed stars are also made with a series of straight stitches, effectively making the inner circle have a smaller diameter than the official 4/9ths of the outer diameter. This effect is partly for the convenience of sewing and partly an affectation that the stars then "look better". In drawn images, the smaller inner diameter stars is probably due to the limitations of drawing tools such as found in Microsoft Word - which can only draw a US style 5-pointed star automatically and can only construct a 7-pointed star with a series of lines.
In the case of lower quality flags, the size, shape and placing of
the stars becomes very varied and casual. It is not unusual to see a
cheap imported flag with the Federation Star the same size as the
Crux Australis stars, which are often positioned smaller in the field
than is correct.
Ralph Kelly, 28 July 2008
Where my really new or modern all sewn (Australian made) are concerned, most are made with stars appliquéd via the "straight line method" as Ralph refers to it. With that said, I have several older all sewn samples where the builder took time to appliqué the 7 pointed stars correctly. In one of those cases, the 5 pointed star is also sewn on the flag correctly while on others, it is straight lined.
Others may have a different experience, but it has been my
observation that if a batch of all sewn/appliquéd flags is made up
specifically for the Australian government or military, they will
have stars that are fully correct in every way. We have a brand new
white ensign and a brand new "naval jack" (the Australian national
flag) in Dalat's connection. Both are built with fully correct stars.
Additionally each piece has a special label on the heading
identifying them as "government" property. We also have 3 fully sewn
RAAF flags at our disposal, all with correct stars.
Clay Moss, 28 July 2008
Clay Moss commented that this flag is not used under "strict government requirements". However, that is not the case with flags used by leading politicians. As recently
as a few days ago, the Australian Treasurer (Federal Finance Minister)
was interviewed on television at Parliament House in front of two
Australian sewn flags which clearly showed the same "straight edging"
of the Federation Star. I believe that all similar internal display
flags used by federal ministers are the same. The flags were probably
supplied by John Vaughan of Australiana Flags who has previously
confirmed to me that this treatment of the stars is both for sewing
convenience and because they "look sharper".
Ralph Kelly, 29 July 2008
Note that the official specification drawing in the first edition
(1995) of the Government publication "Australian Flags" [ozf95] had a
typographic error which showed the inner diameter of the Federation
Star to be 4/5ths of the outer diameter, rather than 4/9ths. This was
corrected in the second edition, but the original drawing is still
sometimes reproduced.
Ralph Kelly, 28 July 2008
A more significant error in specification occurred with the Flags Act
1953 which had an error in Schedule 1. The outer
diameter of the Commonwealth Star (also known as the Federation Star)
was described as three-eighths of the width of the flag, rather than
the correct three-tenths. This required the Parliament to pass an
amendment in Act 58 of 1954 to fix the error.
Ralph Kelly, 29 July 2008
Unfortunately the 1998 & 2006 booklets have errors too! These are as follows:
The mistaken '3/8' in the original version of the Flags Act may have been a
throwback reference to the six-point star as shown in overseas ANF artworks.
These always seemed to portray the six-point Federation Star as 3/8 flag width
rather than the 3/10 that current on-line artworks of the 1901 & 1903 designs
show them as (e.g. the printed flag used for the 1907 'Papua
badge' artwork).
Australian Flags Booklets - Flag Template Errors
In the 1998 edition [ozf98] Delta Crucis inner diameter is shown as 1/9 outer
diameter (not 4/9).
In the 2006 edition [ozf06] Epsilon Crucis outer diameter
is shown as 1/7 width of fly (not 1/12).
In both, Delta Crucis is shown as
1/9 from the middle line of the fly (not 2/9).
At least the on-line 2006
version at 'It's an Honour' has its fractions right! No doubt it is subject to
running amendments that will be included in future booklet reprints.
But in
all the above, the '1/15 of fly' text is awkwardly placed and potentially
misleading.
Another corrected error related to the artwork of flying the
Red Ensign (page 17) in the 2006 edition. This showed a yacht with the ARE at
the bow, which is of course incorrect. On the website and in the 'Australian Flags' booklet 2010 reprint, the artwork has been amended.
Jeff Thomson, 24 October 2012
The fractional errors noted above as appearing in the 'Australian Flags' booklet flag template were corrected in the 2022 reprint of the third edition. The Delta Crucis 1/9 was changed to 2/9, and the Epsilon Crucis 1/7 was changed to 1/12. There was also a 2021 reprint (apparently an interim issue in A4 format). As this reprint was not widely distributed and I have been unable to locate a copy, I do not know if the flag template fractions were corrected in it or not.
Jeff Thomson, 12 September 2022
The British flags of 1902 and 1908 were not given specified dimensions. They were simply based upon
a questionable artist's impression sent to them by the Australian government in 1902. As a result,
in the years to 1934 a wide variety of differences crept into various reissues of British images and
to the manufacture of flags made to the British images. In particular, to the sizes, shapes and
positions of the various stars. So there is no really definitive British design. Yet right up to
1934 the Imperial authorities held to the view that the only change to the design of the Australian
flags since 1902 was the change to the seven-point Commonwealth Star in 1908.
Jeff Thomson, 8 February 2022
In 1908 Mr. E Wilson Dobbs designed a large Australian Red Ensign for the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works. His design reinstated the
original 1901 Southern Cross, combined with the new seven-point Commonwealth Star. This star layout
coincided with that of the non-standard Australian Blue Ensigns flown by Australia's Navy from 1908.
Some Government memos refer to the E Wilson Dobbs flag, but it is unclear whether they meant his
actual red ensign, the Navy's flags, or any Australian flag with a seven-point Commonwealth Star.
A British colour image of this variant was produced, and unlike the other images of the Australian
flags of the time, it showed the blue and red flags accurately!
Jeff Thomson, 4 September 2017
A drawing of this variant prepared by Mr Wilson Dobbs was copied and issued by the Department of
External Affairs to public enquirers until around 1911 before being replaced by drawings of the
current flag. It was alleged in the 1950s that a colour plate of Mr Wilson Dobb's flags was enclosed
in the Gazette No 39 of 1908. If so, then it introduced the seven-point Commonwealth Star at the same
time and in the same Gazette number as the new Commonwealth Coat-of-Arms (also with the seven-point
Star) was proclaimed. This was over four months before the current Australian National Flag design
was formally changed from the six-point star to the seven-point star with the Imperial authorities!
Jeff Thomson, 8 February 2022
There have been Australian Blue (& Red) Ensigns with added badges or letters since mid-1904 and possibly earlier, to the present. These were used as service ensigns, personal flags and reportedly by the pre-war Papuan administration as an alternative to their British Blue Ensign colonial flag. There has never been any centralised control of them, and no standardised method of authorising them. Use of such flags began to fall from favour after the war, and by 1960 the Australian Government had adopted a 'no-defacement policy' and several existing badged flags disappeared by the mid-1980s. Although the Flags Act 1953 provides for defacements to be authorised by warrant, the only known flag to be so warranted is the one-off presentation Centenary Flag which actually has a 'defaced headband'. The two remaining defaced Australian National Flags (as at 2017) are the Chief of Army's personal flag which can be traced back to 1941, and the Australian Border Force's flag which can be traced back through Customs Regulations to 1901. Neither has any direct involvement with the Flags Act.
Jeff Thomson, 4 September 2017
Researchers of Australian Commonwealth flags should be aware that many Australian government documents up to about 1960 and now held in the National Archives, discuss Australian defaced blue ensigns without clarifying whether they mean British Blue Ensigns or ones based on the Australian flag. This also happened with red ensigns. Several external territory and Army flags listed in various documents as the Australian type either were, or most likely were, the British type. A small number of proposed defaced Australian blue or red ensigns can also be found, but as far as is known, none were ever taken into use.
Jeff Thomson, 3 June 2019
What is notable about the drawing and flag images is that they show the six-point Commonwealth Star as slightly 'pinched', rather than the Shield of David appearance normally associated with this flag variant. It is 'pinched' noticeably less than the six-point Commonwealth Star from the British colour plates as enclosed in the 1903 Commonwealth Gazette. In the 1901 drawing, the six-point Commonwealth Star has been constructed using the same drawing method as for the Southern Cross stars.
This flag drawing has raised doubts as to which method was intended to be used to draw the six-point Commonwealth Star, as both comply with the specified dimensions. One clue is that the inner diameter of this six-point star was specified as half of the outer star-point diameter, all other stars on the Australian flags being specified as the inner diameter being 4/9 of the outer diameter. This suggests that the six-point Commonwealth Star was intended to be of the Shield of David style. But this uncertainty also raises the question of who actually designed the 1901 flags, and how they combined and adapted elements of the five Federal Flag Competition winning entries into the definitive Australian flag design.
This uncertainty also applies to the badge on the 1902-1908 Governor-General's Union Flag. There are several artworks of this badge with it's 'shaded' six-point Commonwealth Star to be found in various file items in the National Archives. Some of the images show the Shield of David shape, others have the slightly pinched shape.
Jeff Thomson, 9 January 2024
One theory as to how the 'all-six-points' variant came about relates to the Admiralty description of the flags. As the number of star-points of the 'White Six-pointed Star' was given, and no star-points given for the 'five smaller White Stars' in the fly, it appears that flag makers and others assumed that the Southern Cross stars were also of six points.
Jeff Thomson, 9 January 2024
