This act empowered Australian colonies to provide, maintain and use vessels of war. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.



In the background area there are five white stars representing the Southern Cross. In 1854 miners at the Eureka Stockade in Ballarat, Victoria, protested government labour policies by hoisting a blue flag with a white cross and five white eight-pointed stars. Above the stars is a St Edward’s Crown. Victoria is separated from New South Wales to the north by the Murray River for a length of about 1,065 miles (1,715 km) and by an additional boundary of some 110 miles (180 km) linking Cape Howe and the nearest source of the Murray.

Learn about the design and the history of the flag of the State of Victoria. Five stars are in the shape of the constellation the Southern Cross, the other is the Commonwealth Star. The flag has been used from 1903, but did not … Former Director, Flag Research Center, Winchester, Massachusetts. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. The winning flag has a blue background, the Union Jack, and six stars.

In 1901, Australia became a single country, instead of six separate colonies. The flag of Australia is a national flag. As a result of this, each colony needed to have its own distinctive flag.In December a dispatch from the Secretary of State for the Colonies required that all colonial vessels of war wear a Blue Ensign with the seal or badge of the colony in the fly (the half of the flag furthest from the staff) and a blue pennant.On 4 February the Governor proclaimed that the design of the Badge of the Colony of Victoria be of 'five white stars, representing the constellation of the Southern Cross'.On 10 February the Argus newspaper reported the first flying of the Victorian flag:An event of some importance in the history of the Colony – the inauguration of the flag which has been adopted as our national ensign – took place on board HMVS Nelson (Victoria’s first colonial warship) yesterday, and the inaugural ceremony was made the occasion of a very pleasant trip down the Bay...On 12 November the Governor proclaimed a change to the design of the Flag of the Colony of Victoria:I, the Governor of Victoria, do hereby direct that all vessels belonging to, or permanently in the service of the Government of Victoria, shall wear the Blue Ensign, having in the centre of the fly thereof the distinctive Badge of the Colony, viz – five white stars, representing the constellation of the Southern Cross, surmounted by an Imperial Crown.On 19 September The Honourable Sir John Madden KCMG, Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria, informed the Secretary of State for the Colonies that Victoria would now be referred to as a 'state' in place of the word 'colony'.

Victoria, state of southeastern Australia, occupying a mountainous coastal region of the continent. Initially the flag was called a jack only when it was flown at the bowsprit of British naval vessels. The flag of Victoria, symbolising the state of Victoria in Australia, is a British Blue Ensign defaced by the state badge of Victoria in the fly. : You are free: to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work; to remix – to adapt the work; Under the following conditions: attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. A competition was held to design a new flag for the new country.


He also advised that in the design of the state flag, the crown would take the form of the St Edward’s Crown.The design of the state flag has not changed since.Organisations can be notified when flags should be flown at half-mast or flown for special events by joining Information about the meaning of the parts of the Australian national flag and its history.Information about the Australian Aboriginal flag, the Torres Strait Islander flag and defence flags.The Victorian Government acknowledges Aboriginal Traditional Owners of Country throughout Victoria and pays respect to their cultures and Elders past, present and emerging.the Australian flag and a full range of national flag protocols can be found at the It’s an Honourmore about the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

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