Construction Details of the Australian Flag

Last modified: 2026-04-04 by ian macdonald
Keywords: australia | southern cross | stars: 7 points | construction sheet |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors

• Construction Details
  • Construction Details in the 1901 Flag
  • Very large six-point Commonwealth Star (1901)
• Colour of the flag
• Comparison with New Zealand's flag
• Australian flag images before 1934
• Defaced Australian flags
• Australian National Flag no-defacement policy

See also:

• Australia
• Index of Australian flag pages
• Variant designs of the Australian flag

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:

• commonwealth star - centred in lower hoist,
• alpha - straight below centre fly 1/6 up from bottom edge,
• beta - 1/4 of the way left and 1/16 up from the centre fly,
• gamma - straight above centre fly 1/6 down from top edge,
• delta - 2/9 of the way right and 31/240 up from the centre fly,
• epsilon - 1/10 of the way right and 1/24 down from the centre fly.

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:

  by Mello Luchtenberg and Jonathan Dixon, 3 February 2003

Construction Details in the 1901 Flag

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:

• The 1901 Southern Cross star-points ranged from nine (Alpha) to five (Epsilon) and inner diameter of each was 4/9 of their outer diameters. Beta, Gamma and Epsilon were the same outer diameter as today, Alpha was 1/6 and Delta 1/10 of the fly width. In 1903 Alpha, Beta and Delta were altered to the same design as the Gamma Star (1/7 fly width, seven points) thus making the Southern Cross the same as on the current flag.
• The 1901 six-point and 1908 seven-point Commonwealth Star outer diameters were both 3/10 of the fly width. However the inner diameters were different. The six-point was half, and the seven-point is 4/9 of the Commonwealth Star outer diameter.
• The Department of External Affairs specifications do not appear to have been well-known between 1901 and 1934, as several variant designs evolved in Australia and the UK by 1910. Although they all looked similar to the correct flags, their stars differed in size, shape and positions. Some of these flags faded out in the First World War period, the others in the early 1930s. The detailed drawing of the flags in the 1934 Commonwealth Gazette served to assert the correct design. This same method was used the following year to establish the new Civil Air Ensign of the Commonwealth of Australia.

Very large six-point Commonwealth Star (1901)

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'.

National Archives Item ID 801842; page 103. https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=801842 
Jeff Thomson, 8 February 2022

Colour of the flag

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

• The cross is slightly "taller" on the Australian flag (the distance between Alpha and Gamma Crucis is 2/3 of the hoist, rather than 3/5).
• In the NZ case, the positioning of Beta and Delta Crucis is described in terms of a line which forms an angle of 82º with the vertical, which is the same as the angle formed by the line between Beta and Delta in the Australian flag, to an accuracy of 1 degree.
• The abovementioned line is slightly higher on the NZ cross than on the Australian - splitting the vertical line between Alpha and Gamma 2:1 compared to roughly 11:6 (actually 1759:961).
• On the NZ flag, the line between Beta and Delta is cut by the vertical line in the ratio 7:6, compared with 9:8 for the Australian flag.
• The overall horizontal distance between Beta and Delta is greater on the Australian flag, 17/36 (roughly 0.47) of the hoist length, compared with roughly 0.43 of the hoist length for NZ. This is entirely due to the NZ cross being smaller overall, as the width of the cross is 17/24 (roughly 70.8%) of the height in the Australian case, compared with roughly 71.5% for NZ.

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

Australian flag images before 1934

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

Defaced Australian flags

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

Australian National Flag no-defacement policy

At the next such meeting held on 14 July 1960, the Prime Minister's Department had changed its policy. As the first item of business, the Chairman of the meeting, Mr F C Boyle of the Prime Minister's Department, informed all attendees that the National Flag should never be defaced. This policy of non-defacement continues under the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to this day. National Archives Item ID 1863037, pages 5 to 26.
https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1863037

Jeff Thomson, 23 July 2025