Australian National Flag
School Resources
Making a Flag: Australian Flag Measurements
The Australian National Flag has a dark blue field with the Union Jack occupying the upper hoist, a large white star in the lower hoist and five white stars in the form of the Southern Cross in the fly. The length of the flag is twice the width. The flag is made up of a number of parts:
Hoist
The half of the flag nearest to the halyard (that is the rope by which a flag is raised and lowered).
Fly
The half of the flag farthest from the halyard.
Canton
The place of honour in a flag is the upper half of the hoist. It is also called the First Quarter and sometimes the Upper Hoist.
Second Quarter
The upper half of the fly.
Third Quarter
The lower half of the hoist. It is also called the Lower Hoist.
Fourth Quarter
The lower half of the fly.
Making a flag isn’t just about what happens in a flag factory. Two things make a flag: the meaning it has built into it, and the way we respond to those meanings.
A schoolboy, Ivor Evans, one of the five designers of our flag of “Stars and Crosses”, interpreted the stars as symbols of Australia’s bright future, standing for the four moral virtues of justice, prudence, temperance and fortitude.
Ivor Evans loved to write and quote great poets such as Dante. He believed that a flag, flying in the breeze, was in many ways like a ‘physical poem’. A flag’s poetic symbolism is to be honoured by the people whom it represents and by so doing those same people bring honour to themselves by their show of unity.
In the end, flags are what we make of them. Honouring the flag means living up to the ideals it represents, as many Australians have done in the past, so that we too may contribute to the growth of this nation, living together in fairness, equality, with opportunity for all.
ANFA
Books and Poems
BOOK: Bill Hayden – An Autobiography
First published in Australia in 1996 by Angus & Robertson, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers, Australia.
EXCERPT:
“The other symbol which seems to cause consternation to some is the national flag. I can see no compelling reason why we should change what we have. It has stood the test of time, Our people warmly respond to it. It has meaning for us, and nor do I mind the Union Jack in one corner of it. It symbolises part of our history, a valuable and fundamental past we should not try to escape or deny and which continues to enrich the present for us.
My great worry is, once one party in government carries out a wholesale redesign of this emblem, the next party to enter government could reverse that decision or bring in an altogether new format. There is the danger then of periodic changes to the national flag according to fashion, with any one design having a short shelf life. One of our most important national symbols could become as disposable as an old tissue box and lose all national respect into the bargain. It is said that no-one other than an Australian instantly recognises our flag as our national emblem, to which there may be some truth. But my view is that it is not the design of the flag that causes this, but that we are not large and powerful enough to command that sort of international attention which could focus attention on our national symbols anyway. Most other lesser world powers have exactly the same experience. The test of this is to collect a brochure of the flags of the world and see how many you can identify.
One thing is for certain, politicians will attempt to change the flag at great peril to their careers.”
Reproduced by kind permission of the publishers granted to the Australian National Flag Association (NSW) Inc.
Poem: We’re all Australians Now
In a message received from Senator Bill O’Chee, he quotes three verses from the Banjo Paterson poem, ‘We’re all Australians Now’.
THE POEM:
Our six-starred flag that used to fly
Half shyly to the breeze,
Unknown where older nations ply
Their trade on foreign seas.
Flies out to meet the morning blue
With Victory at the prow;
For that’s the flag the Sydney flew,
The wide seas know it now!
And with Australia’s flag shall fly
A spray of wattle bough,
To symbolise our unity,
We’re all Australians now.
These three verses of a fourteen verse poem by Banjo Paterson were published in 1915 (during WWI) as an open letter to Australian troops. Note the reference to HMAS Sydney flying the Australian Flag at the masthead while defeating the German warship SMS Emden.