1844 separation flag In 1844, John Harrison, the father of
H. C. A. Harrison, designed a flag for the Separation Society, an organisation advocating for the separation of the
Port Phillip District (present-day Victoria) from the
Colony of New South Wales. The flag, featuring "a white star centred on a crimson ground", was flown at a large open-air meeting on
Batman's Hill in June 1844. It was described more fully in the
Port Phillip Gazette: Harrison flew the flag again in 1851 at a meeting of miners on the goldfields at
Bendigo.
Previous official flags The first flag of Victoria was adopted in 1870 and was first flown from
HMVS Nelson on 9 February 1870. It too was a defaced British Blue Ensign with the Southern Cross located in the fly. The stars of the Southern Cross were white and had 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 points with only the leftmost and rightmost stars having one point pointing to the top of the flag. The adoption of the flag came about when Victoria became the first Australian colony to acquire a warship, and thus under the British
Colonial Naval Defence Act 1865 Victoria needed a flag to distinguish its ships from other British ships. At the same time, the red ensign was incorrectly authorised for use by civil vessels registered in the colony of Victoria. Despite the invalid authorisation, the flag continued to be used, and was flown alongside the Union flag during federation celebrations in 1901. The red ensign did not track changes to the blue ensign, and so no crown was added, nor did the stars rotate to point upwards facing the flag. Victoria then adopted the current flag in 1877 with the stars of the southern cross from then on having 5, 6, 7, 7 and 8 points. In 1901, the lieutenant-governor advised the secretary of state that henceforth a
St Edward's Crown would be used on the now state flag. == Construction ==