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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-British or
an Australian ethnic variant of the British race. Memoirs leave no doubt they
considered themselves Australian and were different to the British, they however
perceived themselves as being of the Briton people.
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 was 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 indigenous
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".
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