The Union Jack, as the flag of the British Empire, was first hoisted on Australian soil when Lieutenant
James Cook landed at
Botany Bay, on 29 April 1770. After commanding the
First Fleet to Australia, Captain
Arthur Phillip established a convict settlement at
Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788. There he first raised the Union Jack on 7 February, when he proclaimed the
Colony of New South Wales. The Union Jack at that stage was the one introduced in 1606, which did not include the
Saint Patrick's Saltire. It was incorporated after the
Acts of Union 1801 between
Great Britain and
Ireland, hence featuring on the Australian flag. Each colony also had its own flag based on the Blue Ensign, defaced with a state badge. As an Australian national consciousness began to emerge, several flag movements were formed and unofficial new flags came into common usage. Two attempts were made throughout the nineteenth century to design a national flag. The first such attempt was the
National Colonial Flag created in 1823–1824 by Captains John Nicholson and John Bingle. This flag consisted of a red cross on a white background, with an eight-point star on each of the four limbs of the cross, while incorporating a Union Jack in the canton. The most popular national flag of the period was the 1831
Federation Flag, also designed by Nicholson. This flag was the same at the National Colonial Flag, except that the cross was blue instead of resembling that of St. George. Although the flag was designed by Nicholson in 1831, it did not become widely popular until the latter part of the century, when calls for federation began to grow louder. These flags, and many others such as the
Eureka Flag (which came into use at the
Eureka Stockade in 1854), featured the Southern Cross. The oldest known flag to show the stars arranged as they are seen in the sky is the
Anti-Transportation League Flag, which is similar in design to the present National Flag. The differences were that there was no Commonwealth Star, while the components of the Southern Cross are depicted with eight points and in gold. This flag was only briefly in usage, as two years after the formation of the Anti-Transportation League in 1851, the colonial authorities decided to stop the intake of convicts, so the ATL ceased its activities. The Eureka Flag has become an enduring symbol in Australian culture and has been used by various groups and movements. The
Murray River Flag, popular since the 1850s, is still widely used by boats on Australia's
main waterway. It is the same as the National Colonial Flag, except that the white background in the three quadrants other the canton were replaced with four alternating blue and white stripes, representing the four major rivers that run into the Murray River. Another early design with comparisons to the National Flag is
the electoral banner used by
William Charles Wentworth and
William Bland as candidates for the
1843 New South Wales election.
1901 Federal Flag Design Competition 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 (A$4,400 in 2021 terms). The competition conducted by the
Review of Reviews for Australasia—a Melbourne-based publication— suggested that entries incorporate a design based on the British ensigns and around the Southern Cross, noting that designs without these emblems were unlikely to be successful. The competition attracted 32,823 entries, including those originally sent to the
Review of Reviews. One of these was submitted by an unnamed governor of a colony. 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. 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 judging criteria for the designs included historical relevance, compliance with the conventions of heraldry, originality, utility, and the cost of manufacture. The flag's initial reception was mixed. Readers of
The Age newspaper were told that, The report carried by the
Argus newspaper was also celebratory in nature, stating, As 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". 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. The Admiralty chose the Red for private vessels and Blue Ensigns for government ships. The Barton government regarded both the Blue and Red Ensigns as colonial maritime flags 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". On 3 September 1901, the new Australian flag flew for the first time from the dome of the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne. 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. Since 1996 this date has been officially known as
Australian National Flag Day. The competition-winning designs were submitted to the British Colonial Secretary in 1902. Prime minister
Edmund Barton announced in the Commonwealth Gazette that King
Edward VII had officially approved the design as the flag of Australia on 11 February 1903. Both the blue and red versions were used by armed forces during the First and Second World Wars (see:
Flags of the Australian Defence Force). A colourised version of a photograph held by the Australian War Memorial of the Armistice Day celebrations in Sydney's Martin Place, 11 November 1918, reveals both ensigns being displayed by the assembled crowd. Illustrations and photos of the opening of Australia's provisional
Parliament House in 1927 show Australian Ensigns flown alongside Union Jacks. However, sources disagree on the colours of the Australian flags, leaving open the possibility that either ensign or both were used. A 1934 issue of
National Geographic covering the flags of the world and containing coloured illustrations describes the red ensign as "AustraliaMerchant" and omits the blue ensign altogether. A memo from the Prime Minister's Department dated 6 March 1939
states that "the Red Ensign is the flag to be flown by the public generally" and the federal government policy was "The flying of the Commonwealth Blue Ensign is reserved for Commonwealth Government use but there is no reservation in the case of the Commonwealth Merchant Flag, or Red Ensign." as the merchant shipping flag. In the 1940s, the federal government began to encourage public use of the blue ensign. Despite this, there remained confusion until the
Flags Act 1953 declared the Blue Ensign to be the national flag and the Red Ensign the flag of the Australian mercantile marine. It has been claimed that this choice was made on the basis that the predominately red version carried too many communist overtones for the government of the day to be legislated for as the chief national symbol. The Red Ensign continues to be paraded on
Anzac Day in recognition of its historical significance. 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 in tonnage length. As a result of the declaration of 3 September as Merchant Navy Day in 2008, the Red Ensign can be flown on land alongside the Australian national flag on this occasion as a matter of protocol.
Status of the Union Jack ,
New Zealand flag and Australian flag in an
Anzac Day march in 2017 , Sydney 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 Jack in the UK, when the Australian 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". The government agreed to fly the Blue Ensign on special flag days, but not if it meant additional expense, which undermined the motion. In 1908, Australian Army Military Order, No 58/08 ordered the "Australian Ensign" replace the Union Jack at all military establishments. From 1911 it was the saluting flag of the Australian army at all reviews and ceremonial parades. 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. Despite the government wanting to use the Blue Ensign on Australian warships, officers continued to fly the Union Jack, 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. The British White Ensign was finally replaced by a distinctively
Australian White Ensign on 1 March 1967 (see
Flags of the Australian Defence Force). 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. 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 Jack should take precedence as the National Flag with state and local governments henceforth able to use the blue ensign. In 1940 the Victorian government passed legislation allowing schools to purchase Blue Ensigns, which in turn allowed its use by private citizens. Prime minister Robert Menzies then recommended 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. On 4 December 1950, the
Prime minister Robert Menzies affirmed the Blue ensign as the National flag and in 1951 King George VI approved the government's recommendation. When the Flags Bill was introduced into parliament on 20 November 1953, Menzies stated that the bill was "largely a formal measure which puts into legislative form what has become almost the established practice in Australia". However, historian Elizabeth Kwan argues that Menzies was actually hiding the fact that the bill would give priority to the Australian flag over the Union Jack for the first time, in order to avoid alienating those who still considered the Union Jack the national flag. 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. 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 Jack is not affected by the act. South Australia chose to continue with the Union Jack as the national flag until 1956, when schools were given the option of using either the Union Jack or Australian flag. The former 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. By the mid-1980s, the Commonwealth Government no longer reminded Australians they had the right to fly the Union Jack alongside the National Flag or provided illustrations of how to correctly display them together. In 1977, the Australian flag was first displayed in the House of Representatives in
Old Parliament House. It continued to be displayed in the chamber on the opening
New Parliament House in 1988. Subsequently, the flag was displayed in the Senate for the first time in 1992.
Increasing debate (1980s–1990s) Mild but persistent debates over the status of the flag (and especially the presence of the Union Jack in the canton) came to head during the Australian bicentenary in 1988 and during the prime ministership of Paul Keating. Two lobby groups respectively supporting a flag change and opposing it were created in this period:
Ausflag (established 1981), which supports changing the flag, However, in 1994 Keating dropped his push to change the flag, focusing instead on the (ultimately unsuccessful) promotion of
republicanism. Around the same time, several prominent organisations with the flag in their logos removed it, such as the Australian Labor Party,
Ansett Australia and the
National Australia Day Council.
2000s to present The Liberal
Howard government was elected in 1996, leading to greater government promotion of the flag. An amendment to the
Flags Act 1953 was passed that required a plebiscite to be held before the flag could be changed (although legally the amendment could be repealed by any future Parliament). The Howard government also required that all schools install a flagpole and fly the Australian flag as a condition to receiving federal funding, distributed material from the ANFA to schools, published material encouraging increasing ritualistic care of the flag, and advised the declaration of 3 September as
Flag Day. During this period, displays of the Australian flag became more common, especially in the context of
Australia Day. However, in some contexts it also became associated with exclusionary nationalism and
nativism, being prominent for instance at the
Cronulla riots. ==Centenary flags==