Last modified: 2025-08-09 by ian macdonald
Keywords: britain | colony | australia | oceania |
Links: FOTW homepage |
search |
disclaimer and copyright |
write us |
mirrors
See also:
The flags of all six Australian states are true colonial flags even
though they're no longer colonies. The Australian national flag is a
little different in that an extra device (the federal star) was added
beneath the jack in addition to the southern cross on the fly. Pictures
of the historical Australian state and national flags can be found on the
Ausflag web site.
Brendan Jones, 6 February 1996
Until the Flag Act was passed in 1953, the official national
flag was the Union Jack.
Roy Stilling, 6 February 1996
Theoretically, Australia had no civil flag for use on land (i.e. what we normally think of as the 'national flag') until 1953. The blue ensign was the state flag for use on land (i.e for the use of the Government only) and the red ensign was used for the merchant marine service, as it is today. Any use of these flags by private citizens on land was customary only and, strictly speaking, a breach of protocol.
Some research by Ralph Kelly, an Australian flag historian, dug up some pretty conclusive documentation that the 1900 flag competition only ever intended to design flags for government and merchant use. It was assumed that private citizens on land would continue to fly undefaced Union Jacks, i.e. effectively Australia's 'official national flag' remained the Union Jack.
That of course changed in 1953, whereupon the blue ensign first gained legal status as Australia's national flag and indeed seniority over the undefaced Union Jack.
Brendan Jones, 7 February 1996
Until the 1953 act, the Australian red ensign was the official civil
flag, but the the act changed it to the blue one, which (I believe)
had already seen significant de facto use. Both flags were in
official use from about 1909 in their respective uses. Earlier
versions were in use from about 1901 and were officially approved by
London in 1903. The difference in versions had to do with the
number of points on each star - the basic designs did not change.
In 1975, Australia got its own white ensign, and stopped using
the UK one.
Christopher Vance, 2 October 1996
Some of what Christopher says requires further comment, based upon later
research. To say that the Australian Red Ensign was the official civil flag
before the Flags Act is misleading. Years of research cannot support this. At
best it can only be referred to as an officially-tolerated civil flag. The
Commonwealth government usually stated that there were no reservations on, or
official objections to its use, which was not really encouraging the Australian
public to fly it. In other publications they suggested its use by 'commercial
institutions' but said nothing directly about it's flying by individuals and
organisations.
The civil flag until 1954 was actually the Union Flag, but
the Commonwealth government appears to have done virtually nothing about
publicly promoting flags at all in the twenty years from 1910 to 1930. From
January 1924 they periodically sent a circular advising on flag-flying matters
to the six State Premiers which suggests that they saw public flag-flying
education as a state government responsibility. They do not seem to have sent
these circulars to the Territory Administrators as the Australian Blue Ensign
appears to have been the flag flown for all on-land purposes in most of the
territories.
As for the Australian Blue Ensign, this flag was visible
throughout the Australian community but in a mainly Commonwealth government
context. Until 1941 the only entities actually invited to fly the blue flag were
the six state governments if their own blue ensigns were not available. Some
flag makers would only sell the blue flag to Commonwealth government buyers,
seeing it in a similar restricted way to the defence ensigns. The press release
signed by Prime Minister Robert Menzies in 1941 encouraging its general use does
not seem to have caught on, perhaps due to the war. Significant de facto use of
the blue flag as a civil flag only seems to have started after a similar press
release signed by Prime Minister Ben Chifley in 1947.
Christopher's
statement that 'Both flags were in official use from about 1909 in their
respective uses' would be more accurate as 'Both flags were in official use from
about 1909 in their current design forms'. They were being flown in their
respective uses before this year, in their earlier design form with the
six-point Commonwealth Star of course.
As for the main subject of the
above discussion, the three known federal flag competitions of 1900 and 1901 all
called for what were in effect British colonial ensigns, and as far as I know,
not a 'national flag'. Also the two flags would have to be submitted to the
Imperial authorities for approval simply because they were constituted under
British laws (the Merchant Shipping Act 1894, and the Colonial Regulations) and
their compliance with those laws would have to be confirmed by London. However
the whole circumstance of these competitions suggests that the flags were
intended to be more than simple colonial ensigns. Firstly, the government
competition was a worldwide one, and the resulting flags differed considerably
from the usual model for British colonial ensigns as they had two badges, one
filling the fly instead of being confined to a white disc. There was also the
Governor-General's badge for the Union Flag which was a much more elaborate
version of the one on the ensigns. This was contrary to the usual practice in
which the badges on the ensigns and Union Flag were supposed to be the same. And
finally, a variant of the Federation Flag was also included in the despatch
belatedly sent to London, although why this was sent, what function it was
supposed to fulfill and what the Imperial authorities were expected to do about
it is unclear.
Jeff Thomson, 5 January 2020
In my 2020 post above, I questioned Christopher Vance's 1996 comment that 'the Australian red ensign was the official civil flag...'. Based on my archives research, I could find no clear and unambiguous support for this view. I believe that the extracts from the archives as quoted below are as close as I can get to supporting Christopher's comment. The first extract is from the brief January 1924 circular titled 'Procedure regarding flying of flags' sent from the Prime Minister's Department to the six State Premiers, in a copy dated 6 March 1939. This is the only part of the circular that deals with members of the public flying flags on land.
'On shore, the Union Flag (The Union Jack) can be flown by any subject of the Empire, but when flown should be flown on a mast by itself. It may, however, be flown with a Commonwealth flag on a yardarm, the flags being at opposite ends of the yardarm. It should never be flown in a position inferior to any other flag.'https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=94347 (NAA Item ID 94347, page 140)'The flying of the Commonwealth Blue Ensign is reserved for Government use, but there is no reservation in the case of the Commonwealth Merchant Flag or Red Ensign.'
Also dated 6 March 1939 was an unsigned and unaddressed memo on a Prime Minister's Department letterhead discussing which flag should be flown by Victorian State schools and by the public (presumably Victorians). It paraphrased the January 1924 procedure for flying flags on land in a paragraph headed 'Existing procedure' but the writer seems to have distorted the 1924 meaning regarding public flying of the Red Ensign.
'The existing procedure regarding the type of Australian flag to be flown (i.e. Blue Ensign or Red Ensign) is set out in the statement attached, which was first issued in 1924. It will be observed that the use of the Blue Ensign is restricted to Commonwealth Government buildings and establishments; that the State Flag is flown on State Government buildings, and that the Red Ensign is the flag to be flown by the public generally.' (NAA Item ID 94347, page 137).
In any case, it is worth noting that on 15 March 1941, a little over two years later, the Prime Minister's Department issued the (largely unnoticed) press release encouraging public flying of the Australian Blue Ensign, now the Australian National Flag.
Jeff Thomson, 3 August 2025