Australian Flag between 1914 and 1918

The Australian Flag is often incorrectly assumed to have had an immutable past, what modern Australians now call the national flag has only been in such a role since 1952. Before then the Australian Flag was many things. Due to this multi-flag nature of Australian heraldry and vexology, the role of the Australian Flag in World War I is an interesting subject, and can be prefaced with the question, "What flag did the Australian soldiers of World War I use?".

The image of the Southern Cross in Australian heraldry is a strong one in modern Australia, and the southern cross has been one of the immutable images on Australian flags since the early 1800's. The best know of the flags incorporating the Southern Cross is the "Eureka Stockade" flag of the Ballarat uprising in 1854. This flag is also known as the "Flag of Stars". The Eureka Flag is the first occasion in Australian history that Australian Liberty was described and presented in purely Australian terms, both visually and orally without any reference to European or American liberty. The most notable absence on the Eureka flag is the British Union Flag. Peter Lalor's speech at Bakery Hill forever emblazoned the image of the Southern Cross to Australian liberty with the words, "We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other and defend our rights and liberties."

The Southern Cross image was not unique to the Eureka Flag, the "Anti-transportation Leagues" flag which flew briefly in Tasmania in 1851 was of similar design to the modern day Blue Ensign with a Southern Cross of stars of yellow. This flag also preceded the Ballarat uprising. Another local flag which contained a Southern Cross were the Murray River Flags of the 1850's and the attempted Colonial Flag of the 1820's. They did however, show the Southern Cross to be a powerful image in Australian identity.

Another popular pre-Federation flag was the New South Wales Ensign which was designed in 1831. The flag is also known as the "Australian Colours" or the "Colonial Ensign". It features a defaced white ensign, with a blue St Andrews Cross and the stars of the southern cross in each arm of the cross as well as a central star in the cross. This became known as the unofficial Australian Flag and was in use for over 70 years previous to Federation. During the competition for an Australian Flag in 1901, the New South Wales was an entry.

With Federation came the contest for a Federal Flag and a Civil and Merchant Marine flag. The contest placed limits on the entries, requiring that the flag be based on the British Ensigns and subsequently several contestants entered defaced ensigns with the Southern Cross as the dominant image. The national flag of Australia was still the British Union Flag, but the Blue Ensign was the Federal Flag, allowing it to be flown from federal buildings and the Red Ensign was the Civil flag or Merchant Marine flag, there was also the Naval Ensign, which was a white defaced ensign with a blue southern cross.

The Flag Act which Australian Parliament adopted didn't provide a flag for the flying over Australian soil by the civil population, subsequently the Australian people chose the Red Ensign as their civil flag. By the Flag Act it was permitted, but not encouraged. There was no encouragement previous to 1952 for the private use of the Blue Ensign. This triumvirate of national flags existed until 1952.

In 1914 all three flags, the British Union Flag, the Federal Flag and the Civil flag were all used. Some of the best indications of how the soldiers themselves thought of the flags is in the ensigns that are on display at the Australian War Memorial and the RAAF Museum. In the Australian War Memorial, the red ensigns on display outnumber the blue ensigns in the World War I period by about 10 to 1.

One of the more interesting red ensigns on display is the "Men From Snowy River" flag. This flag contains a Union Jack as the dominant half of the flag, and then has a red ensign on the other half. This is an indication of how the Australians of the time thought of themselves as Australian-BRITONS or an Australian ethnic variant of the BRITON race. AFC memoirs make no doubt they consider themselves Australian and were different to the British, they however perceive themselves as being of the Briton people.

The usage of the British Union Flag and the Australian Red Ensign appears entwined. The Leighterton victory flag at Point Cook, is a British Union Flag with a handdrawn caricature in a centre white oval. The ANZAC Day which was held at Leighterton in 1919, the podium which Oswald Watt spoke from was draped with a British Union Flag and either the Blue or Red Ensign.

The Civil Ensign continued to grow in popularity and was the commonly flown flag on Australian soil by Australians. Most older Australians remember raising the Civil Ensign rather than the Blue Ensign. In 1952 Robert Menzies decided that the Blue Ensign should be the National Flag that and encouraged to be flown for private use. It isn't apparent why the change was made, and the Flag Act has no legislation for a referendum to be held over changes to the Australian National Flag. There has been speculation that the Civil Ensign was replaced as the unofficial flag because Menzies though the Red Ensign made Australia look communist.

In 1995 the Flag Act recognized the flags of the Australian indiginous populations, the Aboriginal Flag and the Torres Strait Islander Flag. In 1995, these two flags were given legal authority as "Flags of Australia" along with the National Flag ( the blue ensign ), the Civil Ensign ( the red ensign ), the Naval Ensign ( the white Ensign). In 2000 the Defence Force Ensign was also legally recognized as a "Flag of Australia". The Australian Flag doesnt have the same support and there is an undercurrent of public support to change the National Flag, often the point of contention is the removal prominent British Union Flag.

Given the vagaries of the Flag Act and the multiple official "Australian Flags", the men and women of the Australian Imperial Force chose which flag they felt represented them the best. This appears to be the Civil Flag.

The Flags Of Australia

The British Union Flag. This was the official Australian Flag until 1953 when the Blue Ensign over-rode it. Despite the Union Flag being the dominant official Australian Flag, Australians chose to fly the Civil Ensign to represent their Australian ethnicitry.

One of the Australian Colonial Flags designed in the 1820's. It proved unpopular as the St Andrews Cross didnt recognize the Scottish and Irish Australian population.

One of the Murray River Flag variants from the 1850's.

The Eureka Flag which flew above Bakery Hill during the Eureka Stockade uprising in the minefields of Ballarat in 1854. The flag is most noticable for it's absence of the British Union Flag, being one of the first occasions Australian identity was displayed without reference to European ancestory. The flag was inextricably equated with Australian liberty when Lalor made a speech on Bakery Hill, "We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other and defend our rights and liberties".

The New South Wales Ensign. The flag was also known as the Australian Colours or the Colonial Ensign. This flag proved popular from it's initial design in the 1830's, popular enough to be one of the entries in the 1901 Australian Flag competition.

The Australian National Flag since 1952. Before 1952 when the flying of the Blue Ensign was encouraged for private use, the flag was only to be flown from Federal Buildings. The flag was chosen after several entries in the Australian Flag competition in 1901 were of similar design.

The Australian Civil Flag known as the Red Ensign. The Civil Flag was intended to be flown by the Merchant Navy on the seas. The flag was adopted by the Australian population and was the main Australian Flag flown on land for private use until 1952 when Robert Menzies altered the Flag Act for the Blue Ensign to be the flag for private use. Most of the flags from World War I which are on display in the Australian War Memorial are the Red Ensign.

The White Ensign or Naval Ensign was one of the four flags recognized with federation in 1901. The flag is for the ships of the Royal Australian Navy to fly on the seas.

The Aboriginal Flag which was formally recognized as an "Australian Flag" under the Flag Act in 1995.

The Torres Strait Islander flag which was formally recognized as an "Australian Flag" under the Flag Act in 1995.

Australian Defence Forces Ensign used by the combined forces. This was recognized as an official Australian flag under the Flag Act in 2000.