Flag of Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea

Use	National flag, civil and state ensign
Proportion	3:4
Adopted	1 July 1971
Design	A black and red bend (diagonal bi-colour); charged with the Southern Cross (hoist side) and a bird-of-paradise (fly side)
Variant flag of Papua New Guinea
Use	Naval ensign
Proportion	3:4
Adopted	1 July 1971
Design	A white flag with the national flag of Papua New Guinea in the canton

The flag of Papua New Guinea was adopted on 1 July 1971. In the hoist, it depicts the Southern Cross; in the fly, a raggiana bird-of-paradise is silhouetted. The designer of the flag was 15-year-old schoolgirl Susan Karike, now Mrs Susan Huhume,^[1] who won a nationwide competition for a new flag design in 1971.

Red and black have long been traditional colors of many Papua New Guinean tribes. Black-white-red was the color of the German Empire's flag, which had colonized New Guinea prior to 1918. The bird-of-paradise is also found on the national coat-of-arms.

Prior to 1970, Papua New Guinea was known as the Australian Trust Territory of Papua and New Guinea, and its flag for sporting events was the bird-of-paradise on a green background. In 1970 the Australian administration tried to introduce another flag, a vertical triband: blue at the hoist with the stars of the Southern Cross (Crux Australis) as in the Australian flag, then yellow, then green with the white bird-of-paradise in the fly.

The Southern Cross shows that it is a country in the Southern Hemisphere and can be seen in Papua New Guinea.

Historical flags of Papua New Guinea

Flag of German New Guinea, 1899-1914	Flag of the German Empire in New Guinea, 1899-1914	Flag of the Australian/British Territory of Papua, 1906-1949
Flag of the Australian/British Territory of New Guinea, 1914-1949, and of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea, 1949-1965	Flag of the Australian(/British) Trust Territory of Papua and New Guinea, 1965-1970	Flag of the Australian(/British) Trust Territory of Papua and New Guinea, 1970-1971

References

1. ↑ www.pngbd.com