3 Sep: Launch of the Australian National Flag and Red Ensign
The high-profile launch of Australia’s federal flag with many entries on display, was at the prestigious Royal Exhibition Buildings in Melbourne.
The gala occasion was attended by eminent dignitaries including Lady Hopetoun, wife of the first Governor-General and the host and master of ceremonies was none other than our first Prime Minister, Edmund Barton (later Sir).
At 2.30pm on the main dome of the Exhibition building is a stiff south-westerly breeze, a giant, blue Australian Flag, measuring 11 metres long by 5.5 metres wide was hoisted to the cheers of the many onlookers.
Our national flag of ‘Stars and Crosses’ was born in the year of national federation. The symbol of unity to fly across our vast island continent and overseas territories and to be seen and admired across the World for generations to come.
Also the same design, though with a red background known as the Australian Red Ensign, was chosen as our official Merchant Navy flag for commercial shipping and private pleasure craft.
Recent photos of the Australian National Flag flying over the main dome of the Royal Exhibition Building. The Australian National Flag has flown in this position since 3 September 1901.
Note in the left photo the customised halyard (rope) hoisting and lowering system.
1901 Australian National Flag
The original (1901) flag design had slightly different stars to its present-day form (from 1908), in that:
• Each star of the southern Cross had a unique number of points, i.e. 9, 8, 7, 6 and 5 points respectively, indicating the brightness of each star in the night sky. These were later standardised in 1903 – see Section 6.
• The Commonwealth (Federation) star had six points representing the six Australian Crown Colonies which became the Australian States at Federation. A 7th point was later added to the Commonwealth Star in 1908 to represent all federal territories of Australia.
The original (1901) Australian National Flag and Red Ensign
The 1901 Australian National Flag is illustrated in the founding heritage document “Commonwealth Seal and Flag”, Sep 1901, held in the records of the National Library of Australia, Canberra:
The only known remaining Australian National Flag that was made and flown in 1901. Its dimensions are 12 by 6 feet or approximately 3.6 x 1.8 metres. It is made of fully sewn wool bunting. The ‘inserted’ stars were a sewing technique of the era.
Melbourne Evening Herald prediction
On 2 Sep, 1901, the day before the winning design was announced, Melbourne Evening Herald had correctly predicted the winning design and compared it against the winner of their own competition in 1900. Note that the newspaper showed the colours of the flag designs by using heraldic tinctures in lines, vertical for red and horizontal for blue, as shown below:
Review of Reviews for Australasia publication
Our newly chosen flag was featured in colour on the front cover of the September 1901 edition of the ‘Review of Reviews’ with a detailed illustrated article about the successful flag competition outcome in the same publication.
Front cover of the September 1901 edition of the ‘Review of Reviews’ featuring the
new Australian National Flag (note, this item is signed by co-designer of our flag, E J Nuttall)
The complete edition is here:
16 Sep: 2nd Australian National Flag officially flown, this time a Vice-Regal occasion
Australian National Flag flown at Old Town Hall, Flinders Street, Townsville, Queensland. Raised by the first Governor-General, Lord Hopetoun.
This was the 2nd Australian National Flag to be flown officially, after the first at the Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne.
