Australian vs New Zealand flag – Difference between the flags

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Australian Flag vs New Zealand Flag
The flag is a piece of fabric and its purpose is to symbolise a nation or a country. In general country flags are rectangular in shape (often in the ratio 2:3, 1:2 or 3:5) and feature a symmetrical design.

Every flag has 4 parts – the canton, fly, hoist and field, wherein the canton occupies the upper left had corner, fly implies the length of the flag, hoist is the maximum height that the flag can reach and field is the section enclosed by hoist and fly. A country can be recognised by its flag but some of them are quite similar, for example, the flags of Australian and New Zealand.

The Australian flag is rectangular and it features a blue background with the United Kingdom flag occupying the upper hoist quarter, a white seven-pointed star in the lower hoist quarter and other five seven-pointed stars – one smaller star and four bigger, in white. It was first adopted in 11th February 1903, but had been in use since September 1901.

The New Zealand flag is also rectangular with blue background it also features the United Kingdom flag in the canton. But on the fly it has four five-pointed red stars with white contour. It was adopted on 24th March 1902 but had been in use since 1869.

Each and every graphic on both flags bear significance, both historical and modern. The blue background is a British ensign and has been taken from the United Kingdom flag to symbolize the fact that both countries were British colonies in the past. The United Kingdom flag comprises of three crosses, namely the red St George’s Cross which represents England, the white diagonal St Andrew’s Cross of Scotland and the red diagonal St Patrick’s Cross of Ireland.

Then there is the Southern Cross which is one of the most distinctive constellations. It is visible in the Southern Hemisphere and it symbolizes the geographical position of the two countries in the Pacific Ocean. So the similarities shared between the two flags are – blue background, the United Kingdom flag, the Southern Cross and the rectangular shape.

There are differences too, first among which is the fact that the Australian flag bears seven-pointed stars which represents the Commonwealth Star and the New Zealand flag bears five-pointed stars. On the Australian flag the Southern Cross is represented by 5 stars while on the New Zealand flag it is represented by 4 stars. Stars on the Australian flag are white in color while those on the New Zealand flag are red with white borders.

In conclusion it is easy to see that the two countries have some things in common. Both of them were linked to United Kingdom in the past and both of them are located in the Southern Hemisphere.

So whoever wants to differentiate between the Australia and New Zealand flags should look at the stars first. It is the number and the colors of the stars that make the difference. The flag which has the most stars is Australian and the flag featuring red stars with white border belongs to New Zealand.