The Welsh Australian Flag
1988
The flag consists of The Red Dragon Y Ddraig Goch passant (standing with one foot raised)on a fesse (horizonatal stripes) of green and white field. The colours green and white were additions of Henry VII, the first Tudor king.
Welsh mithology tells the story of two dragons one red representing the spirit of the Welsh people and the other white being the foreigner or invader. These two dragons went into battle with red Y Ddraig Goch emerging triumphant. And so the principality of Wales today the dragon reigns supreme.
The red dragon faces the Southern Cross the symbol of the Australian continent. The name New South Wales (NSW) then known as New Holland came from the journal of Lieutenant James Cook in 1770 as he thought that the land looked like the south coast of Wales. He named it “New Wales” but then changed the name in his journal to “New South Wales”.
Welsh people numbered amongst the convicts transported to NSW. Many who were transported could speak only Welsh, so they would have found it hard to communicate with most convicts who spoke only English. With mass migration in the nineteenth century to New South Wales and Victoria Welsh settlers were mostly farmers, followed later by gold diggers and coal miners. People of Welsh ancestry have contributed enormously to Australian society and have left their mark.
Designer John Christian Vaughan OAM