Ray Martin, best known as a behind the desk person for current affairs shows in Australia - has joined the board of Ausflag. This is an advocacy group for a new Australian flag, preferably one without the British union jack in the corner. It looks like Ausflag has a new website that is pretty slick though the best part of their website is the design competitions they have held for an Australian flag in the past.

The Australian Blue Ensign - the current flag - is only a recent thing. It has only been the national flag since the 1954 Flag Act and partly because there was concern the Red Ensign made Australia look communist. Under British vexillogical convention the Blue Ensign is for the government and government buildings. The Red Ensign is a civil flag though mainly used by the merchant marine and the White Ensign is the for the Australian Navy.

If you look at the photos of World War I a mix of the blue and red ensign were used by people showing their patriotism and by the ANZACs in the Middle East and Europe. The Australian Navy used the British White Ensign up until the Vietnam War when the British became concerned that Australian warships in Vietnam would be confused with British ones since the British did not take part in Vietnam. It was changed to the present white ensign.

I don't think there is much reason to keep the current Australian flag. While it is an attractive design and has some history to it, though not much really, a nation has a changing idea of what constitutes nationalism and Australia is far past the idea of the Briton nation which the current flag projects.

I am sure that someone can come up with one that is far nicer than the present one. The Flag Act allows for the Governor General to proclaim flags of Australia such that multiple flags can be used, so really, it is not that big a deal to let people choose how they want to determine their Australian-ness through a flag. (more)

The tradition of Australian flags can be divided into the three periods, the colonial period, the federation period and the modern period. The colonial period denotes early representations of defaced British Ensigns incorporating a mixture of British and Australian imagery. The federation period extends from 1901 to 1971 when the Blue and Red defaced British ensigns were adopted as flags to represent Australian ethnicity by the Australian Federal government. The modern period begins with the flying of the Aboriginal Flag as Australians incorporated Australian imagery into flags outside of the British Ensign tradition.

In terms of independent heraldic traditions being developed in Australia the Eureka Stockade flag was the most significant of the colonial period. The Eureka flag was unique for its time in that it did not carry any European imagery. Through Peter Lalor's speech at Bakery Hill, the Southern Cross was indelibly entwined with Australian liberty. The significant event of the federation period was the Flag Act of 1954 officially adopting the Blue Ensign as the Australian National Flag over the British Union Flag. The modern era has produced flags of great beauty and meaning such as the Aboriginal Flag, the Boxing Kangaroo flag, the Torres Strait Islander Flag and the development of the unique Australian Pale design.

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