Australians are a proud bunch. We love the Southern Cross, the blue ensign, and that quirky Commonwealth Star sitting right under the Union Jack. But honestly, if you ask the average person at a BBQ about the history of the Australian national flag, they’ll probably tell you it was designed by a schoolkid or that it’s always looked exactly like this.
Both of those things are kinda true, but also mostly wrong.
The story is actually a bit of a mess. It involves a worldwide competition, five different winners who had to share the prize money, and a weirdly long delay before the flag even became "official" in the eyes of the law. You’ve got to remember that back in 1901, Australia wasn’t just one cohesive unit. It was a collection of colonies trying to figure out if they actually liked each other enough to become a nation.
A Public Competition for a New Nation
When Federation happened on January 1, 1901, Australia didn’t actually have a flag. People were waving the Union Jack or various colonial flags. The new federal government decided they needed a brand-namesake symbol, so they launched the 1901 Federal Flag Design Competition.
They got 32,823 entries.
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That’s a staggering number for a population that small. The prize was £200, which was a massive amount of money back then—basically a couple of years' wages for a working-class person. The judges were looking for something that showed loyalty to the Empire but also gave a nod to the unique geography of the Great Southern Land.
Interestingly, the competition wasn't just some local affair. It was actually conducted in conjunction with The Review of Reviews, a popular magazine of the time. This meant the history of the Australian national flag started with a global call for creativity.
The Five Winners
The weirdest part? Five people submitted almost identical designs.
Instead of picking one, the judges split the prize money between them. You had Annie Dorrington (a famous artist from Perth), Ivor Evans (a 14-year-old schoolboy from Melbourne), Leslie John Hawkins (a teenager from Sydney), Egbert John Nuttall (an architect), and William Jennings (a ship’s officer).
Imagine being a 14-year-old and suddenly being told you helped design your country’s flag. That’s Ivor Evans for you. His contribution is a huge part of why we have the Southern Cross today.
The Design That Won (And Then Changed)
The original winning design isn't exactly what you see flying over Parliament House today. It’s close, but the details shifted over the first few decades of the 20th century.
First, let’s talk about the stars. In the 1901 version, the stars of the Southern Cross had a varying number of points to represent their actual brightness in the sky (the magnitude). Some had five points, some six, some seven, and one had nine. It was a bit of a nightmare to manufacture. By 1903, King Edward VII approved a slightly modified version where four of the stars had seven points and the smallest one stayed at five.
Then there’s the big star under the Union Jack: The Commonwealth Star.
Most people think it has six points for the states. It did—originally. But in 1908, they added a seventh point. Why? To represent the Territory of Papua and any future territories. It was a bit of "future-proofing" that stuck.
The Great Red vs. Blue Debate
This is where the history of the Australian national flag gets spicy. For nearly 50 years, Australia had two "official" flags: the Blue Ensign and the Red Ensign.
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Technically, the Blue Ensign was for government use only. If you were a regular person or a business, you were supposed to fly the Red Ensign. If you look at photos of the troops in World War I or World War II, or even the opening of the original Parliament House in 1927, you’ll see red flags everywhere.
It feels weird now, doesn't it?
We associate the red flag with the merchant navy or, more recently, with specific political protest movements. But for the first half of the 20th century, the Red Ensign was the "people's flag." The confusion was so widespread that many Australians didn't actually know which one was their national flag.
The Flags Act of 1953
It wasn't until Robert Menzies’ government passed the Flags Act 1953 that the Blue Ensign was legally declared the Australian National Flag. This cleared up the mess. King George VI had actually given his blessing for the change earlier, but it took until the mid-50s for it to become the law of the land.
This Act gave the Blue Ensign precedence over the Union Jack for the first time. Before that, the Union Jack was still considered the primary flag of the Empire, and Australia was just a part of that bigger picture.
Why the Union Jack Stays Put
There is a huge amount of debate today about whether the flag should change. Critics argue that having the British flag in the canton (the top left corner) is a relic of colonialism. They want something "more Australian," like the Boxing Kangaroo or a design featuring the Aboriginal Flag colors.
But from a purely historical perspective, the Union Jack is there because, in 1901, Australia was British. We were a dominion. The designers weren't trying to be "un-Australian"; they were expressing their identity as British subjects in the South Pacific.
Even the Southern Cross itself has deep roots. It’s been used on various "rebel" flags, most famously the Eureka Flag in 1854. The miners at the Eureka Stockade fought under a blue flag with a white cross and five stars. While the current flag is a government-sanctioned design, it still carries that DNA of early colonial identity and resistance.
Common Myths That Need to Die
You’ll often hear that the flag was designed by a kid in a competition. As we saw, that’s a half-truth. Ivor Evans was one of five, and the government had a heavy hand in "tweaking" the final look.
Another myth: "The flag is illegal because it wasn't registered properly."
You’ll hear this one in certain legal-fringe circles. It’s nonsense. The Flags Act 1953, combined with royal assent, makes it as legal as anything can be in this country.
The history of the Australian national flag is also often separated from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags. In 1995, the Australian Government officially recognized the Aboriginal Flag and the Torres Strait Islander Flag as "Flags of Australia" under the Flags Act. They aren't "national" flags in the same way the Blue Ensign is, but they have legal status.
The Timeline of Change
- 1901: The competition winners are announced. The first flag is flown over the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne.
- 1903: King Edward VII approves the design, but with those star-point changes I mentioned.
- 1908: The Commonwealth Star gets its seventh point.
- 1941: Prime Minister John Curtin encourages the use of the Blue Ensign to foster national pride during the war.
- 1953: The Flags Act finally makes the Blue Ensign the official national flag.
- 1998: An amendment to the Flags Act ensures the flag can only be changed if the Australian people vote on it in a referendum.
What This Means for You Today
If you're looking to understand the flag, don't just look at the fabric. Look at the tensions it represents. It’s a mix of British heritage, Southern hemisphere geography, and a slow, decades-long crawl toward independence from the "Mother Country."
If you’re a student, a vexillologist (flag nerd), or just someone curious about Aussie history, here are a few things you should actually do to dive deeper:
Check out the original designs. The National Archives of Australia has digitised many of the 30,000+ entries from 1901. Some of them are wild. We're talking kangaroos, cricketers, and some truly bizarre color combinations that would have made for a very different national identity.
Visit the Royal Exhibition Building. If you’re in Melbourne, go to the spot where it all started. Standing in that space gives you a sense of the scale of Federation.
Read the Flags Act 1953. It’s not a long document, but it’s the legal backbone of the symbol. It explains exactly how the flag should be treated and what the proportions must be. For example, the flag is always twice as long as it is wide.
Understand the protocol. There are actually "rules" for flying the flag. You shouldn't fly it at night without a light on it. It shouldn't touch the ground. You don't fly it upside down unless you're in dire distress (though that's more of a maritime tradition).
The flag isn't just a static piece of history. It’s an evolving symbol that people still argue about today. Whether it stays the same or changes in the next fifty years, its origin story remains one of the most interesting chapters in the birth of the Australian nation.
Next Steps for Research:
- Search the National Archives of Australia (NAA) for "1901 Federal Flag Competition" to see the rejected designs.
- Look up the "Eureka Flag" at the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery to see the precursor to the Southern Cross motif.
- Review the Australian Government’s "It's an Honour" website for the specific protocols on flying the flag alongside the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags.