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Australia as a British colony

Design of Australian flags as colonial flags
Civil flag on land the flag act of 1953
Act of 1986
Queensland
Victoria

See also:

Design of Australian flags as colonial flags

The flags of all six Australian states are true colonial flags in that respect 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, 1996-FEB-06

Civil flag on land and the Flag act of 1953

Until the Flag Act was passed in 1953, the official national flag the Union Jack.

Roy Stilling, 1996-FEB-06

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, 1996-FEB-07

Act of 1986

In 1986, an act called the Australia Act was passed in Australia and the UK to end the States' technical status as British Colonies (State Governors were appointed by the British Government, although in practice this was only on the advice of the Premier of the State).

One of the ramifications of this Act was that State Governors ceased to fly undefaced Union Jacks, instead they flew new Governor flags, which were typically the State Flag adorned with a Royal Crown above the badge. For some reason Queensland adopted a defaced Union Jack with a laurel wreath as the Governor's flag.

Brendan Jones, 1996-FEB-07

Queensland

In Queensland, the Governor still flies the Union Jack with its badge in a laurel wreath in the centre of the Saint-George's cross. Until 1986, all State Governors flew an undefaced Union Jack from their respective Government Houses.

Brendan Jones, 1996-FEB-07

Victoria

Theoretically the Victorian badge was on a disc, but the disc was the same colour as the field, blue. This caused the British Admiralty some consternation, who suggested the Victorian badge should be redesigned as the southern cross on a blue shield on a white disc.

In a rare display of independence (with respect to flags) the Victorian Government unilaterally approved the flag design anyway. Over the following decades, the southern cross "grew" outside of the nominal disc area, and eventually the pretence of the disc disappeared.

Brendan Jones, 1996-FEB-07