What do Australia's flags mean?

What do Australia's flags mean?

Three flags are officially recognised, and anyone may fly them in the community. They are the Torres Strait Islander Flag, the Australian Aboriginal Flag and the Australian National Flag. Part 1 of the booklet gives the colours and the meaning of each. Of the three, the National Flag is the one that stands for the whole country.

The Australian National Flag

The colours are blue, white and red, and the design has three parts.

• The Union Jack sits in the top left corner. It is the United Kingdom's own flag, and it points to British settlement and to the laws and institutions that Australia took from Britain.
• The Commonwealth Star sits below the Union Jack. It has seven points. Six of them are for the six states. The seventh covers the territories.
• The Southern Cross is on the right. It is a cluster of stars that people see in the southern sky.

To remember the star, think "six plus one". Six states, then one point for all the territories together.

The Australian Aboriginal Flag

The colours are black, red and yellow.

• Black fills the upper half. It is the colour of the Aboriginal peoples of Australia.
• Red fills the lower half. It means the earth, and the earth matters in ceremony.
• The yellow circle in the middle is the sun.

A way to remember it: people above, earth below, sun between them.

The Torres Strait Islander Flag

The colours are green, blue, black and white.

• The green bands mean the land.
• The blue panel in the middle means the sea.
• Thin black lines mark the Torres Strait Islander people themselves.
• The white headdress of a dancer, set in the middle, is a sign for every Torres Strait Islander.
• Each point of the white star is one of the island groups of the Torres Strait. White also means peace.

Here the colours carry most of the meaning, so write yourself a short list: green is land, blue is sea, black is people, white is peace.

How to avoid mixing them up

The two Indigenous flags both use black, so the black alone tells you nothing. Ask a second question. If the flag has red and a yellow sun, it is the Aboriginal Flag. If it has blue sea and a white headdress, it is the Torres Strait Islander Flag.

Do the same slow reading you use on any tricky question. See how to read trap words.

Where this fits

The flags are in the same part of the booklet as the other national symbols. Read Australia's national symbols next, then the whole of Part 1, Australia and its people. Try a free practice test after a day or two, so you find out what you really remember.

Check yourself

• Can you name the three parts of the National Flag and what each stands for?
• What do the top half, the bottom half and the circle of the Aboriginal Flag stand for?
• What do the green, blue and black parts of the Torres Strait Islander Flag stand for?