Gold - the symbol of Australia’s sporting victories, and the colour of our mineral wealth, beaches, the golden fleece of Australian wool and the harvests of golden grains across every state.

Green - the colour of the Australian forests, gum trees, pastures and the endless horizons of growing crops.

Australia’s national colours of green and gold are also those of the golden wattle in flower.

The emergence of national colours

Since the late 1800s, green and gold have been recognised around the world on the uniforms of Australia’s sporting teams.

Green and gold were formally proclaimed Australia’s national colours in 1984 after many requests for recognition of what had become our traditional sporting colours.

Before 1984 Australia had no official national colours. The country was represented with combinations including: red, white and blue; blue and gold; and the ever-popular green and gold.

Red, white and blue are the colours of the Australian National Flag and featured on the first version of the Commonwealth Coat of Arms. Blue and gold had heraldic importance as the colours of the wreath in the Coat of Arms. In 1975, blue and gold were chosen as the colours of the ribbon of the Order of Australia.

Australians are free to use our national colours but, to be used correctly as national colours, they should appear together and not be separated with white or another colour.

The colour references are:

• Green: PANTONE® 348C, and
• Gold: PANTONE® 116C.