The video itself is really good. I didn’t agree with everything he said (the Triple Union, while not good, is still just so obviously way better than putting the Aboriginal flag in the canton), but certainly with most of it. The Great Southern Flag is a noble effort, but it just feels too…fidgety…to me. Too much going on. Too many small pieces. The use of 5 separate colours, the very small kangaroo, 3 different kinds of stars (5-pointed Epsilon star, four 8-pointed main Southern Cross stars, and the 7-pointed Federation Star), and the solid cross connecting the stars.
Honestly, I genuinely like the Golden Wattle. I like that it keeps the Federation Star within the negative space. I think wattles are a great symbol that we should reach for more often.
The video briefly touched on the shades of colours (in the blue of the Unity Flag), but didn’t touch on what I think makes them a significant design feature for Australian flags to play with. If you do a tour of Parliament House, there’s a good chance the tour guide will explain why the two chambers are the colours they are. Red for the Senate, after the UK’s House of Lords, and green for the House of Representatives/Commons. But unlike the very vibrant shades Westminster uses, Australia’s colours are chosen to suggest natural earthy tones of the outback. The green of a eucalyptus, and the ochre red of the dirt. I don’t know if that’s a design choice our flag should copy or not. But it’s worth thinking about.
