Australia’s national flag has six stars in total.
One is the large Commonwealth Star beneath the Union Jack, and five form the Southern Cross constellation on the flag’s fly side. Counting both groups gives six stars, a detail that is easy to miss when the Southern Cross attracts most of the attention.
The Commonwealth Star originally had six points, representing the six federating colonies. In 1908, it was changed to seven points: the extra point represented the Territory of Papua and future territories. This changes the number of points, not the number of stars.
The Southern Cross consists of four larger seven-pointed stars and one smaller five-pointed star. The flag’s current design emerged from the 1901 federal flag competition, and the first Australian flag was flown on September 3 that year. A frequent mistake is to answer seven because the Commonwealth Star has seven points; points and stars are different counts.