A Meritorious Change

The flag we all know today was adopted as the national flag in the early 1950s. An earlier version of it was the winning design in a popular competition in 1901. That flag’s stars have been modified to what we have today.

The Commonwealth star was given an extra point to include the territories. The other six points represent the six original states.

I’m not sure that Australians have any appetite for toying with changes to our flag, but if there is, here is the product of 40 years of research:

Good flag designs adhere to heraldric rules. This design adheres to those rules and incorporates a distinctly Australian stylized Southern Cross. Many people see it as a symbol of republicanism, not knowing that it originated from the National Colonial Flag and later the Australian Colonial Flag and Federation Flag, which flew for 100 years.

The four outer stars of this stylized Southern Cross are 7-sided for the same reason the Commonwealth Star is. However the center star is 8-sided as in the Colonial, Federation & Eureka flags because it is symmetrical and therefore stylistically better at the centre.

Aboriginal Reconciliation

Four years ago, I proposed a design that incorporated the Aboriginal flag’s sun by making the Commonwealth Star yellow. However, that breaks the heraldic rule of no more than three colors. Changing that to red, solves the issue:

I have reservations about this, but I post it here to offer an alternative.

Flags represent a nation of people. Nations are not unchanging and so flags should evolve with them.

One day, Australia may have a seventh state – what I call Capricornia – and the eight-pointed stars could make a comeback.