The Cornish Australian Flag
1988
The flag displays the cross Saint Piran’s – Baner Peran who was a Cornish abbot. Consisting of the white cross and black- sable a cross argent. The black and white refers to black ore and the white metal of tin from the mining in Cornwall since the bronze age.
With the stars of the Southern Cross appear in the first quarter Canton of the flag. The Cornish influence in Australia has been wide and varied with the first Cornish people arriving as convicts on the First Fleet. The greatest waves of Cornish immigrants to Australia came with their skills to mine various minerals including copper, silver, and gold. This group of immigrants helped build the Australian mining industry. People of the Cornish ancestry account to the fourth largest Anglo-Celtic group in Australia after the English, Irish and Scottish. People of Cornish ancestry have contributed enormously to Australian society and have left their mark.
Designer John Christian Vaughan OAM