As an overseas territories of Australia, the Heard and McDonald Islands use the Australian flag. The Australian flag consists of the Union Jack flag, six stars, and a blue background. The UK flag is on the canton of the flag, and one seven-pointed star is centrally positioned below the union jack. The other stars form a dipper like constellation with one five-pointed star. The flag was officially adopted in 1947.
The Southern Cross constellation has been used for a long time to represent Australia. The six-pointed stars represent the states in Australia while the last one stands for overseas territories. The blue color that covers the background of the flag is a symbol of truth and loyalty, vigilance, perseverance, and justice.
The flag was chosen from a competition which had 32,823 entries. The winning design is attributed to five different people: William Stevens, a ship’s officer, Leslie John Hawkins, a teenager from Sydney, Egbert John Nuttall also from Melbourne, a fourteen-year-old from Melbourne Ivon Evans, and Annie Darrington, an artist from Perth. Their designs were all similar, so they split the prize money amongst one another.
The barren island of Heard and McDonald were once under the United Kingdom before it became a territory of Australia. The UK union jack flag is considered the only previous flag to have been used on the Heard and McDonald Islands. It was first hoisted on the island in 1910. Later on, in 1947, the island fell into Australian authority, and since then Australian flag has been used.
This page was last modified on May 1st, 2018
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