P. M. No. 125/1966
Her Majesty the Queen has approved a new Ensign for the Royal Australian Navy. It will be flown by Australian Naval ships and establishments as soon as the necessary flags have been manufactured.
The new Ensign will replace the White Ensign, which is the present flag of the Royal Navy, and has been flown by the Royal Australian Navy since it was formed In 1910. It will be called the Australian White Ensign.
Australians have been proud to serve under the same Ensign as the Royal Navy for more than half a century. But we have come to feel that it is now appropriate to adopt a flag which, while indicating our allegiance to the Grown, is distinctively the flag of the Royal Australian Navy.
The new flag will be white and will continue to show the Union Flag in the upper canton at the hoist. In place of the Red Cross of St. George, the new Ensign will display the six blue Australian stars on the white ground, placed in the same way as the stars on the National Flag.
I am confident that the high and honourable traditions associated with the White Ensign will be maintained by the Royal Australian Navy under its new flag.
Canberra
23rd December, 1966.