After more than 2,100 public submissions, the Reserve Bank has chosen "Connection to Country" as the theme for a redesigned $5 banknote, confirmed there will be no portrait on it, and moved to the next step of creating artwork before the note itself is designed.

Interest rates dominate coverage of the Reserve Bank of Australia, especially in a week when the cash rate target rose to 4.85%. But the RBA also has a far more tangible responsibility: the notes in Australians' wallets. Its Reimagine the $5 project has been quietly working through the question of what the country's smallest-denomination banknote should look like next.

The project has now reached a turning point. A theme has been chosen, a key design decision has been announced, and the process is moving from ideas to images.

From 2,100 submissions to a theme

The RBA's Reimagine the $5 page reports that the project attracted more than 2,100 public submissions. That is a substantial response for a consultation about a single banknote, and it points to how personal currency design can feel. A note is something people handle, keep and recognise; it carries meaning beyond its face value.

From that process, the theme chosen is "Connection to Country".

The RBA's material explains that Country includes land, waters and sky. That is a broader idea than a landscape or a map. It suggests relationships with place that extend across the natural environment as a whole, and it gives the creative process a wide field to draw from.

The RBA has also set out some clear boundaries for how the theme will be approached. According to the project page, the design process will:

  • avoid tokenism and stereotypes
  • exclude sacred or secret material.

Those principles matter. A theme of this kind could easily be handled superficially, with familiar imagery used as decoration rather than with care. Committing up front to avoiding tokenism and stereotypes signals that the RBA is aware of that risk. Excluding sacred or secret material recognises that some knowledge and imagery is not appropriate for public reproduction, let alone on an object printed in large numbers and carried around the country.

No portrait this time

One of the clearest statements on the project page concerns what will not appear on the note: "We won't be putting a portrait on the $5 note this time."

That is a notable decision. Portraits are a common feature of banknotes, and dropping one makes the theme the central element of the design rather than an accompaniment to a face. The RBA has not, in the material reviewed for this article, set out further reasoning beyond the statement itself, so it would be speculative to go further.

What can be said is that, without a portrait, the success of the design will rest heavily on how well the artwork expresses Connection to Country within the principles the RBA has laid down.

From artwork to banknote

The next steps, as described on the project page, run in a particular order:

  • first, artwork creation
  • then, banknote design.

That sequence is worth noting. The artwork comes first, and the banknote design follows. In other words, the RBA is not starting with the technical template of a note and fitting images into it. It is developing the creative content and then working out how to translate that into a functioning banknote.

The project page does not give a date for when a new $5 note will enter circulation, and this article does not attempt to estimate one. Readers should treat any claimed release date with caution unless it comes from the RBA.

Cash in a card-dominated world

The redesign comes as payments continue to shift. Ellis Connolly, the RBA's Head of Payments Policy, told the Australian Finance Industry Association on 20 October 2026 that cards account for 75% of payments, based on a consumer survey the RBA has run every three years since 2008, and that nearly 50% of card payments are now made via mobile wallets.

Those figures might seem to make banknote design less important. The RBA's actions suggest otherwise. Under the Cash Distribution Framework Act 2026, Linfox Armaguard was designated on 3 September 2026, a step that brings a key part of the cash distribution system within a formal framework. Together with the $5 project, it shows the RBA continuing to invest attention in cash as part of the payments system, even as electronic payments grow.

The card reforms of 2026 are a separate stream of work. From 1 October 2026, surcharges were removed on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa payments, and lower domestic interchange caps began. Those changes affect how people pay electronically; the $5 project concerns what a physical note looks like. Both, in different ways, touch everyday transactions.

Banknotes are among the most widely shared public objects in any country. Choices about what goes on them say something about how a nation sees itself and what it chooses to recognise. That is part of why the RBA opened the process to public submissions and why its stated principles focus on respect and care.

Governor Michele Bullock, speaking at a University of New England graduation in Armidale on 23 October 2026, said: "ultimately, the work of the RBA is about people." Her address was not specifically about the $5 note, but the sentiment fits a project built on public input and on how a community's relationship with place is represented.

For now, the work moves to the artwork stage. The theme is set, the principles are clear and the decision on a portrait has been made. What the note will ultimately look like remains to be seen.

The bottom line

The Reimagine the $5 project has moved from consultation to creation. More than 2,100 public submissions led to the theme "Connection to Country", with Country understood to include land, waters and sky. The RBA has said there will be no portrait this time, and that the process will avoid tokenism and stereotypes and exclude sacred or secret material. Artwork creation comes next, followed by banknote design. No release date has been confirmed, so the finished note is still some steps away.