Queensland (Australia)

Last modified: 2005-02-26 by jonathan dixon
Keywords: queensland | blue ensign | crown | maltese cross | brisbane | australia |
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by Jorge Candeias

• Description of the flag
• Governor's flag
• 1859 Queensland Ensign
• Badge Proposals
• Queensland Red Ensign
• Flags of Local Government Areas:
  • Brisbane
  • Ipswich
  • Mackay

See also:

• Australia
• Australia Subdivisions
• Other Australia flags
• North Queensland Statehood Proposal

Other pages:

• Rockhampton (Queensland)

Description of the Flag

The Queensland state flag was created as a colonial flag - a British Blue Ensign with the badge of the colony added to the blue field. Because some of the Australian state badges were originaly created to represent the Governor (as distinct from the Colony) they generally showed some element of British royal heraldry - the main criteria being that it be different from similar badges used in other parts of the Empire. Queensland uses a blue Maltese Cross (Malta used a red cross). The Crown [superimposed on the cross] on the Queensland badge represented the status of the Governor as representative of Queen Victoria in the Colony.
Ralph Kelly, 19 September 1999

Governor's flag

by Dylan Crawfoot

In Queensland, the Governor still flies the Union Jack with its badge in a laurel wreath in the centre of the Saint-George's cross. Queensland is the only state to still do this.
Brendan Jones, 7 February 1996

In the most recent edition of Crux Australis [cxa], it is mentioned that there is some talk of following the Victorian model and simply changing the state flag's field to maroon for the governor's use.
Jonathan Dixon, 4 August 2004

See also: State Governors' flags

1859 Queensland Ensign

by Dylan Crawfoot

Looking at old Brisbane newspapers today, I looked up the December 1859 accounts of the separation of Queensland from NSW. The article mentions that at the official ceremony, a flag referred to as the Queensland Ensign was raised, obviously not the Blue Ensign adopted some years later. The Flag Society of Australia has an Australian Historical Flags poster featuring a Queensland "Separation Flag" from 1859, is this the flag talked about in the article? The flag is the same basic design as the British White Ensign, al