Flag of Australia

The national flag of Australia is based on the British Blue Ensign—a blue field with the Union Jack in the upper hoist quarter—defaced with a large white seven-pointed star and a representation of the Southern Cross constellation, made up of five white stars. Australia also has a number of [|other official flags] representing its states and territories, Indigenous peoples and government bodies.
The original version of the flag first flew as the Commonwealth blue ensign on 3 September 1901, after being selected alongside a merchant naval red ensign in a competition held following federation. A slightly simplified version as approved by King Edward VII was officially adopted in 1903. It was later modified to the current design on 8 December 1908, with the change from a six to a seven-point Commonwealth Star.
Initially restricted to government and shipping use, the blue ensign slowly gained prominence as a popular Australian symbol alongside the red ensign, which had less restrictions on its use. At first, the flag remained officially subordinate to the Union Jack and flying the blue ensign alone without the Union Jack could be seen expressing disloyalty to the British Empire. By 1954, however, in line with Australia's increasing independence from the United Kingdom, the blue ensign was designated as the Australian National Flag with the passage of the Flags Act 1953. The act also gave the Australian flag precedence over the Union Jack for the first time. Over time, the use of Union Jacks decreased with most Australians considering the blue ensign the national flag by the 1970s.

Design

Devices

The Australian flag uses three prominent symbols: the Union Jack, Southern Cross, and Commonwealth Star.

Union Jack

Adopted in its current form in 1801, the Union Jack incorporates three heraldic crosses representing the nations of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as they were constituted at the time:

The red St George's Cross of England
The white diagonal St Andrew's Cross of Scotland
The red diagonal St Patrick's Cross of Ireland

Located in the canton, the position of honour in the flag, the Union Jack acknowledges the history of British settlement in Australia. Further, the British Admiralty required a flag based on the Blue or Red Ensign for maritime use.

Commonwealth Star

The Commonwealth Star, also known as the Federation Star, is located in the lower hoist quarter. It originally had six points, representing the six federating colonies. In 1908, a seventh point was added to symbolise the Territory of Papua, and any future territories. The Commonwealth Star does not have any official relation to Beta Centauri, despite the latter's brightness and location in the sky; however, the 1870 version of the flag of South Australia featured the pointer stars, Alpha and Beta Centauri.

Southern Cross

The Southern Cross is located in the fly half of the flag. It 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. Ivor Evans, one of the flag's designers, intended the Southern Cross to also refer to the four moral virtues ascribed to the four main stars by Dante: justice, prudence, temperance and fortitude. The number of points on the stars of the Southern Cross on the modern Australian flag differs from the original competition-winning design, in which they ranged between five and nine points each, representing their relative brightness in the night sky. The stars are named after the first five letters of the Greek alphabet, in decreasing order of brightness in the sky. Alpha was originally larger than Beta and Gamma whilst Delta was originally smaller than Beta and Gamma. In order to simplify manufacture, the British Admiralty standardised the size and shape of the four larger outer stars at seven points and each of the same size, leaving the smaller, more central star with five points. This change was officially gazetted on 23 February 1903.

Colours

The colours of the flag, although not specified by the Flags Act, have been given Pantone specifications by the Parliamentary and Government Branch of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. The Australian Government's Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers also gives CMYK and RGB specifications for depicting the flag in print and on screen respectively.

Scheme				Source
Pantone	280 C	185 C
RGB	0–27–105	229–0-39	255–255–255
CMYK	100%–74%–0%–59%	0%–100%–83%–10%	0%–0%–0%–0%

The shade of the red colour in the canton of the Australian flag is actually generally lighter than the shade used in the British flag from which it originated. The blue colour has a different hex code for RGB scheme, but when printed -the Pantone number- it is the same: Australia vs. United Kingdom. The flag is represented as the Unicode emoji sequence,.

Construction

Under the Flags Act, the Australian National Flag must meet the following specifications:

the Union Jack occupying the upper quarter next to the staff;
a large seven-pointed white star in the centre of the lower quarter next to the staff and pointing direct to the centre of St George's Cross in the Union Jack;
five white stars 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 up from bottom edge.
Beta Crucis – 7-pointed star, of the way left and up from the centre fly.
Gamma Crucis – 7-pointed star, straight above centre fly down from top edge.
Delta Crucis – 7-pointed star, of the way right and up from the centre fly.
Epsilon Crucis – 5-pointed star, of the way right and down from the centre fly.

The outer diameter of the Commonwealth Star is of the flag's width, while that of the stars in the Southern Cross is of the flag's width, except for Epsilon, for which the fraction is. Each star's inner diameter is of the outer diameter. The flag's width is the measurement of the hoist edge of the flag.

Protocol

Guidelines for flying the flag are laid out in the pamphlet "Australian Flags", which is infrequently published by the Australian Government. The guidelines say that the Australian National Flag is allowed to be flown on every day of the year, and that it "should be treated with the respect and dignity it deserves as the nation's most important national symbol".
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 or near polling stations when there is a national election or referendum. Government ships, fishing vessels, pleasure craft, small craft and commercial vessels under 24 metres in tonnage length, can fly either the Red Ensign or the Australian National Flag, but not both. The British Blue Ensign can be flown on an Australian owned ship instead of the Australian flag if the owner has a warrant valid under British law.
The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet 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. The flag should not be displayed upside down under any circumstances, not even to express a situation of distress. The flag is not to be placed or dropped on the ground, nor should it be used to cover an object in the lead-up to an unveiling ceremony, or to hide other material. Flags that have decayed or faded should not be displayed. Old or decayed flags should be disposed of in private "in a dignified way"; a method given as an example is to cut the flag into small pieces before being placed in the waste.
When the flag is flown at half-mast, it should be recognisably at half-mastfor example, a third of the way down from the top of the pole. The Australian flag should never be flown half mast at night, unless directed to half-mast for an extended period. Days on which flags are flown at half-mast on government buildings include,

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 am.
On the death of a member of the royal family by special command of the Sovereign and/or by direction of the Australian Government.
On the death of the governor-general or a former governor-general.
On the death of a distinguished Australian citizen in accordance with protocol. 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 at half-mast on the day of the funeral.
On ANZAC Day the flag is flown at half-mast until noon.
On Remembrance Day flags are flown at peak until 10:30 am, at half-mast from 10:30 am to 11:02 am, then at peak for the remainder of the day.

The department provides an 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. It also must sit first where more than one flag is used. For this reason the Collingwood Football Club had to reverse its logo, which previously featured the flag until a logo refresh at the end of 2017.
There have been several attempts to make desecration of the Australian flag a crime. In 1953, during the second reading debate on the Flags Bill, 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 that attracted support from some parliamentarians both in his own party and the senior Coalition partner, the Liberal Party. 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 Bill was tabled in Parliament by Trish Draper without support from Howard and subsequently lapsed. In 2006, following a flag-burning incident during the 2005 Cronulla riots and a burnt flag display by a Melbourne artist, Liberal MP Bronwyn Bishop introduced the Protection of the Australian National Flag Bill 2006. This bill sought to make it an offence to desecrate the flag by "wilfully destroying or otherwise mutilating the Australian National Flag in circumstances where a reasonable person would infer that the destruction or mutilation is intended publicly to express contempt or disrespect for the Flag or the Australian Nation". The bill received a second reading but subsequently lapsed and did not proceed to be voted in the House of Representatives.