Flag of Adelaide

Flag of Adelaide

Flag of Adelaide

The flag of Adelaide is a symbol of the city of Adelaide, South Australia. It is based on the coat of arms granted to the municipality in 1857. The current design was adopted in 1991 after a competition held by the Adelaide City Council.

The blue and white design is based on the city’s coat of arms, which features three ships, representing Adelaide’s maritime history and a golden fleece, a reference to the Golden Fleece myth. The flag was first flown in 1997.

Flag of Adelaide
Flag of Adelaide

Design and symbolism

Adelaide’s flag is a white base with two blue horizontal lines running through it, dividing the flag into three equal sections. The top third of each section is coloured red, while the bottom two-thirds are coloured green. In the centre of the white section is a large yellow sun with eight rays extending outwards.

In 1876, a competition was held to design a new municipal flag for Adelaide. It was won by William Henry Geyer, 1829–1880, who lived in South Australia at the time and died shortly after winning his prize money for designing this flag.

The symbolism behind this design comes from several different things:

The current city flag consists of three vertical stripes

  • The green on top represents Adelaide’s parks.
  • The golden yellow in the middle represents South Australia’s wheat industry.
  • The blue at the bottom represents Port Adelaide’s seas.

In between these stripes is one horizontal stripe which runs from the top left to the bottom right:

  • coloured gold, which represents local government.
  • red, which represents military service.
  • white on its left side with black dots representing constellations visible from South Australia on its right side.

History

The first official flag of the City of Adelaide was adopted in 1876 and was a red flag with a white disc in the centre bearing a black swan. In the centre of the disc was the word “Adelaide”. This design was used until 1877 when it was replaced by a new design that had been created by Colonel William Light, 1786-1839, who designed and laid out Adelaide.

Flag of Adelaide(1)
Flag of Adelaide(1)