page_title: Flags of the Australian Defence Force
section_title: Other flags associated with military forces in Australia
hierarchical_section_title: Flags of the Australian Defence Force / Other flags associated with military forces in Australia
caption_attribution_description: English: The Union Jack is raised outside a depot during the Australian invasion of Tarakan in May 1945.
context_page_description: The three branches of the Australian Defence Force are each represented by flags, among other emblems and insignia. Within each service various symbols fly on individual ships, at bases, camps, the Australian Defence Force Academy and colleges. These include flags, standards, guidons and banners and that denote rank, appointment, corps, formations, regiments, training units and sub units.
context_section_description: There have been other flag designs and individual specimens that have historically been associated with the Australian Defence Force and the former British colonial forces in Australia. There not being a distinguishing flag for Australia until the 1901 Federal Flag Design Competition the various pre federation military forces used British and local colonial flags up until the Boer war. In 1802 there was an incident where the third governor of New South Wales, Philip Gidley King (1758–1808), ordered Lieutenant Charles Robbins, RN, to set out from Sydney in a tiny armed schooner, the Cumberland, with a crew of seventeen in search of a French surveying expedition. The French were finally encountered on 14 December on King Island. As the naturalists were busy collecting insect and plant samples Robbins landed and his party marched to the back of the French camp. He then posted three men in front of a tree who upon the Union Jack being raised fired three volleys and gave three cheers before it was audibly announced that the island was a possession of His Majesty King George III.
  The Australia army's oldest battle honour dates from Suakin in 1885. It was originally an honorary distinction granted by King Edward VII in 1907 to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Australian infantry regiments. Their colonial predecessors the 1st, 2nd and 3rd regiments of the New South Wales contingent had essentially constituted the infantry contingent from that colony in the Sudan war. This honour was subsequently passed to the 1st battalion (The East Sydney Regiment); 3rd battalion (The Werriwa Regiment); 17th battalion and 20th battalion (The Parramatta and Blue Mountains Regiment). This honour is now held by their present-day descendant the Royal New South Wales Regiment.
caption: The Union Jack is raised outside a supply depot of the 9th Australian division on Tarakan, 2 May 1945.
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