The flag's original design (with a six-pointed Commonwealth Star) was chosen in 1901 from entries in a worldwide competition held following Federation, and was first flown in Melbourne on 3 September 1901;[1] this date has been proclaimed as Australian National Flag Day.[2] A slightly different design was approved by King Edward VII in 1902. Over the next few years, the exact specifications of the flag were changed several times both intentionally and as a result of confusion. The current specifications were formally gazetted in 1934, and in 1954 the flag became recognised by, and legally defined in, the Flags Act 1953, as the "Australian National Flag".
1901 Federal Flag Design Competition Main article: 1901 Federal Flag Design Competition The edition of the Review of Reviews front cover signed by Egbert Nuttall, after the winning designers of the 1901 Federal Flag design competition were announced.
As Federation approached, thoughts turned to an official federal flag. In 1900, the Melbourne Herald conducted a design competition with a prize of 25 Australian pounds (2009: $3,200) in which entries were required to include the Union Flag and Southern Cross, resulting in a British Ensign style flag.[30] The competition conducted by the Review of Reviews for Australasia—a Melbourne-based publication—later that year thought such a restriction seemed unwise, despite observing that a design without these emblems were unlikely to be successful.[30] However, it still suggested that entries incorporate the two elements in their design.[31] After Federation on 1 January 1901 and following receipt of a request from the British government to design a new flag, the new Commonwealth Government held an official competition for a new federal flag in April. The competition attracted 32,823 entries,[31] including those originally sent to the Review of Reviews.[31] One of these was submitted by an unnamed governor of a colony.[32] The two contests were merged after the Review of Reviews agreed to being integrated into the government initiative. The £75 prize money of each competition were combined and augmented by a further £50 donated by Havelock Tobacco Company.[31] Each competitor was required to submit two coloured sketches, a red ensign for the merchant service and public use, and a blue ensign for naval and official use. The designs were judged on seven criteria: loyalty to the Empire, Federation, history, heraldry, distinctiveness, utility and cost of manufacture.[5] The majority of designs incorporated the Union Flag and the Southern Cross, but native animals were also popular, including one that depicted a variety of indigenous animals playing cricket.[32] The entries were put on display at the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne and the judges took six days to deliberate before reaching their conclusion.[32] Five almost identical entries were chosen as the winning design, and their designers shared the £200 (2009: $25,000) prize money. They were Ivor Evans, a fourteen-year-old schoolboy from Melbourne; Leslie John Hawkins, a teenager apprenticed to an optician from Sydney; Egbert John Nuttall, an architect from Melbourne; Annie Dorrington, an artist from Perth; and William Stevens, a ship's officer from Auckland, New Zealand. The five winners received £40 each.[32] The differences to the current flag were the six-pointed Commonwealth Star, while the components stars in the Southern Cross had different numbers of points, with more if the real star was brighter. This led to five stars of nine, eight, seven, six and five points respectively.[32]
The flag's initial reception was mixed. The then republican magazine The Bulletin labelled it:[33]
a staled réchauffé of the British flag, with no artistic virtue, no national significance... Minds move slowly: and Australia is still Britain's little boy. What more natural than that he should accept his father's cut-down garments, – lacking the power to protest, and only dimly realising his will. That bastard flag is a true symbol of the bastard state of Australian opinion.[34] s the design was basically the Victorian flag with a star added, many critics in both the Federal Government and the New South Wales government objected to the chosen flag for being "too Victorian".[36] They wanted the Australian Federation Flag, and Prime Minister Barton, who had been promoting the Federation Flag, submitted this flag along with that chosen by the judges to the Admiralty for final approval.[37] The Admiralty chose the Red for private vessels and Blue Ensigns for government ships.[38] The Barton government regarded both the Blue and Red Ensigns as colonial maritime flags[39] and "grudgingly" agreed to fly it only on naval ships. Later governments, that of Chris Watson in 1904 and Andrew Fisher in 1910, were also unhappy with the design, wanting something "more distinctive" and more "indicative of Australian unity."[40] The Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne. Site of the first flying of the Australian flag.
On 3 September 1901, the new Australian flag flew for the first time from the dome of the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne.[32] The names of the joint winners of the design competition were announced by Hersey, Countess of Hopetoun (the wife of the Governor-General, the 7th Earl of Hopetoun) and she unfurled the flag for the first time.[41] Since 1996 this date has been officially known as Australian National Flag Day.
A simplified version of the competition-winning design was submitted to the British Parliament in December 1901. Prime Minister Edmund Barton announced in the Commonwealth Gazette that King Edward VII had officially recognised the design as the Flag of Australia on 11 February 1903.[42] This version made all the stars in the Southern Cross seven-pointed apart from the smallest, and is the same as the current design except the six-pointed Commonwealth Star.[6]
Blue or Red Ensign?
The Red Ensign was the only flag private citizens could fly on land.[39] By traditional British understanding, the Blue Ensign was reserved for Commonwealth Government use, with State and local governments, private organisations and individuals all using the Red Ensign.[39] As an example, the explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins planted a red ensign in Antarctica.[6] However, the official painting of the opening of Australia's new Parliament House in 1927 shows only Red Ensigns and Union Flags being flown.[39][43] Doubt has been raised over whether Septimus Power's painting is accurate with claims the red was possibly chosen for dramatic effect or because it was the flag the Australian public was expected to use.[44]
There was some confusion over appropriate use of the ensigns until the Flags Act 1953 set the Blue Ensign as the national flag, and the Red Ensign as the flag of the Australian mercantile marine.[45][46] Red ensigns continued to be used in Anzac Day marches into the 1960s.[47]
Technically, private non-commercial vessels were liable to a substantial fine if they did not fly the British Red Ensign. However, an Admiralty Warrant was issued on 5 December 1938, authorising these vessels to fly the Australian Red Ensign. The Shipping Registration Act 1981 reaffirmed that the Australian Red Ensign was the proper "colours" for commercial ships over 24 metres (79 ft) in tonnage length.[48]
Replacement of the Union Jack
The blue ensign replaced the Union Jack at the Olympic Games at St Louis in 1904. In the same year, due to lobbying by Richard Crouch MP, it had the same status as the Union Flag in the UK, when the House of Representatives proclaimed that the Blue Ensign "should be flown upon all forts, vessels, saluting places and public buildings of the Commonwealth upon all occasions when flags are used".[49] The government agreed to fly the Blue Ensign on special flag days, but not if it meant additional expense, which undermined the motion.[49] The Blue Ensign could only be flown on a state government building if a state flag was not available.[39]
On 2 June 1904 a resolution was passed by parliament to replace the Union Jack with the "Australian Flag" on forts. Initially the Department of Defence resisted using the Flag, considering it to be a marine ensign and favouring King's Regulations that specified the use of the Union Jack. After being approached by the Department of Defence, Prime Minister Chris Watson stated in parliament that he was not satisfied with the design of the Australian flag and that implementation of the 1904 resolution could wait until consideration was given to "adopt another [flag] which in our opinion is more appropriate."[50] In 1908, Australian Army Military Order, No 58/08 ordered the "Australian Ensign" replace the Union Flag at all military establishments. From 1911 it was the saluting flag of the Australian army at all reviews and ceremonial parades,[51][52]
The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) was promulgated on 5 October 1911 and was directed to fly the British White Ensign on the stern and the Flag of Australia on the Jackstaff.[53][54][55] Despite the government wanting to use the Blue Ensign on Australian warships, officers continued to fly the Union Flag, and it was not until 1913, following public protest in Fremantle after its use for the review of HMAS Melbourne, that the government "reminded" them of the 1911 legislation.[56] The British White Ensign was finally replaced by a distinctively Australian White Ensign on 1 March 1967.[54]
Despite the new Australian Flags official use, from 1901 until the 1920s the Federation Flag remained the most popular Australian flag for public and even some official events. It was flown at the 1907 State Premiers conference in Melbourne and during the 1927 visit to Australia of the Duke and Duchess of York, the future King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.[57]
In the 1920s there was debate over whether the Blue Ensign was reserved for Commonwealth buildings only, culminating in a 1924 agreement that the Union Flag should take precedence as the National Flag.[39] As the Union Flag was recognised as the National flag, it was considered disloyal to fly either ensign without the Union flag alongside, and it was the Union Flag that covered the coffins of Australia's war dead.[39][58] The Flags Act 1953 specified the Blue Ensign as the Australian National Flag and the Red Ensign as the merchant shipping flag.
In 1940 the Victorian government passed legislation allowing schools to purchase Blue Ensigns,[59] which in turn allowed its use by private citizens. Prime Minister Robert Menzies then encouraged schools, government building and private citizens to use the Blue Ensign, issuing a statement the following year allowing Australians to use either ensign providing it was done so respectfully.[6][39]
Prime Minister Ben Chifley issued a similar statement in 1947.[6][60]
On 4 December 1950, the Prime Minister Robert Menzies proclaimed the Blue ensign as the National flag and in 1951 King George VI approved the Government's recommendation.[61]
This status was formalised on 14 February 1954, when Queen Elizabeth II gave Royal Assent to the Flags Act 1953, which had been passed two months earlier.[62][63] The monarch's Assent was timed to coincide with the Queen's visit to the country and came after she had opened the new session of Parliament.[62] The Act confers statutory powers on the Governor-General to appoint 'flags and ensigns of Australia' and authorise warrants and make rules as to use of flags. Section 8 ensures that the 'right or privilege' of a person to fly the Union Flag is not affected by the Act.
South Australia chose to continue with the Union Flag as National flag until 1956, when schools were given the option of using either the Union or Australian flags.[64] The Union Flag was still regarded as the National flag by many Australians well into the 1970s, which inspired Arthur Smout's campaign from 1968 to 1982 to encourage Australians to give the Australian flag precedence.[65]
By the mid 1980s, the Commonwealth Government no longer reminded Australians they had the right to fly the Union Flag alongside the National Flag nor provided illustrations of how to correctly display them together.[66]
In 1998, the Flags Act was amended to provide that any change to the national flag must be approved by a referendum which must offer the existing flag alongside any alternative designs. However, the requirement for a referendum is not binding on Parliament, which would need to amend the Flags Act to alter the design.[67]
The Union Flag is currently ranked 2nd in the Australian Order of Precedence.[68]
Argue the finer points as much as you like, the fact is that Australians have already chosen a flag to represent Australia and Australians, if every future generation changes the flag to reflect their current culture the flag will end up an abomination that will not be respected either by Australians or the world at large.
