The history of the Australian flag Author: Il’ya Dashchenko, 10 “A” Teacher: V.V.Vershinina Syktyvkar 2014

The history of the Australian flag The flag of Australia is one of the state symbols of the country, it represents a rectangular cloth of blue colour with an aspect ratio of 1:2. In the upper left quarter of the depicted the British flag. In addition, there is the image of six white stars on the flag of Australia: five stars in the form of a constellation of the southern cross in the right side panel and one big star at the center of the bottom in the left quarter. The flag was adopted soon after the formation of the Federation in 1901.

National colonial flag During the nineteenth century there were two attempts to establish a national flag. The first of them refers to 1823-1824 years, when John Nicholson and John Bingl developed the national colonial flag. It was a white cloth, on which there were images of the flag of Britain and the cross of St. George with four white stars. National colonial flag is considered to be the first Australian flag, where there is a picture of the southern cross.

Federated Australian flag The greatest popularity as a «national» flag got the federated flag of Australia, developed by John Nicholson in 1831. The design of the flag largely repeated the national colonial flag of 1823-1824's, however, it had important differences: the Central cross was blue, and it was a picture of five but not of four stars.

Australasian Anti-Transportation League Flag The first flag on which images of stars were placed in the order they appear in the sky, is considered Anti-Transportation of Australasia ,which opposed the travel exiles in Australia.

Flag today The flag of Australia uses the same colours the flag of the UK: blue, red, white. All three colours reflect the history of the country: British-colonial and for the most part, European past. In 1901 they also symbolized loyalty to the British Empire. However, the blue colour on the flag of Australia has a broader interpretation: according to one point of view, it symbolizes the fact that Australia is an island-mainland, according to another, the first settlers, to reach it, were forced to swim the sea.

Resources: http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D4%EB%E0%E3_%C0%E2%F1%F2%F0%E0%EB%E8%E8 http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki