View source for 1901 Federal Flag Design Competition

{{Use Australian English|date=September 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}}
{{History of Australia}}
[[File:reviewofreviews.jpg|thumb|The edition of the ''[[Review of Reviews]]'' front cover signed by Egbert Nuttall, after the winning designers of the 1901 Federal Flag design competition were announced.]]
The '''1901 Federal Flag Design Competition''' was an [[Australian government]] initiative announced by [[Prime Minister of Australia|Prime Minister]] [[Edmund Barton]] to find a flag for the newly federated Commonwealth of Australia.<ref>Commonwealth of Australia Gazette No. 27</ref> In terms of its essential elements the winning entries are the official [[flag of Australia]].
==Background==
{{main|Federation of Australia}}
After [[Federation of Australia|Federation]] on 1 January 1901 and following receipt of a request from the British government to design a flag to distinguish Australia, the new [[Government of Australia|Commonwealth Government]] held an official competition for a new 'federal flag' in April. The competition attracted 32,823 entries,<ref name="af39"/> including those originally sent to the one held earlier by the ''[[Review of Reviews]]''.<ref name="af39">''Australian Flags'', p. 39.</ref> One of these was submitted by an unnamed governor of a colony.<ref name=af40/> The two contests were merged after the ''Review of Reviews'' agreed to being integrated into the government initiative. The £75 prize money of each competition were combined and augmented by a further £50 donated by [[Havelock Tobacco Company]].<ref name=af39/>
==Conditions of entry==
Each competitor was required to submit two coloured sketches, a red ensign for public use, and a blue ensign for official use. The designs were judged on seven criteria: loyalty to the Empire, Federation, history, heraldry, distinctiveness, utility and cost of manufacture.<ref name="evans">Evans, I. 1918. ''The history of the Australian flag''. Evan Evans, Melbourne</ref> The majority of designs incorporated the Union Flag and the Southern Cross, but native animals were also popular, including one that depicted a variety of indigenous animals playing [[cricket]].<ref name="af40"/> The entries were put on display at the [[Royal Exhibition Building]] in Melbourne and the judges took six days to deliberate before reaching their conclusion.<ref name=af40/>
==Winning contestants==
[[File:Annie Dorrington.jpg|thumb|[[Annie Dorrington]], one of the winning designers for the [[Flag of Australia|Australian flag]]]]
Five almost identical entries were chosen as the winning design, and their designers shared the £200 (2015: $29,142.12) prize money. They were [[Ivor William Evans|Ivor Evans]], a fourteen-year-old schoolboy from [[Melbourne]]; Leslie John Hawkins, a teenager apprenticed to an optician from [[Sydney]]; Egbert John Nuttall, an architect from Melbourne; [[Annie Dorrington]], an artist from [[Perth]]; and William Stevens, a ship's officer from [[Auckland]], [[New Zealand]]. The five winners received £40 each.<ref name="af40">''Australian Flags'', p. 40.</ref> The differences from the present flag were the six-pointed Commonwealth Star, while the components stars in the Southern Cross had different numbers of points, with more if the real star was brighter. This led to five stars of nine, eight, seven, six and five points respectively.<ref name=af40/> The Inner Diameter of the six-pointed Federal Star in the lower Hoist was larger than that of the later seven-pointed version of the Federal Star in the lower Hoist. Alpha Crucis and Delta Crucis were of different sizes than they are today—with Alpha being larger than at present and Delta being smaller than at present.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.fotw.info/flags/au%27.html |title=Construction Details of the Australian Flag |last=Thomson |first=Jeff |date=10 November 2015 |website=FOTW Flags Of The World website |publisher=Jon Radel |access-date=21 November 2023 |quote="The 1901 Southern Cross star-points ranged from nine (Alpha) to five (Epsilon) and inner diameter of each was 4/9 of their outer diameters. Beta, Gamma and Epsilon were the same outer diameter as today, Alpha was 1/6 and Delta 1/10 of the fly width. In 1903 Alpha, Beta and Delta were altered to the same design as the Gamma Star (1/7 fly width, seven points) thus making the Southern Cross the same as on the current flag. The 1901 six-point and 1908 seven-point Commonwealth Star outer diameters were both 3/10 of the fly width. However the inner diameters were different. The six-point was half, and the seven-point is 4/9 of the Commonwealth Star outer diameter."}}</ref>
==Flag of Australia==
{{main|Flag of Australia}}
[[File:Flag of Australia (1903–1908).svg|thumb|Commonwealth Blue Ensign (1903-1908)]]
The competition-winning design was submitted to the British admiralty for entry into their register of flags in December 1901.  Prime Minister [[Edmund Barton]] announced in the Commonwealth Gazette on 11 February 1903 that [[Edward VII]] had approved it as the "Flag of Australia".<ref>''Commonwealth of Australia Gazette'' No. 8, 20 February 1903</ref> The revised version made all the stars in the Southern Cross seven-pointed as well as of equal size, apart from the smallest, and is the same as the existing flag except for the six-pointed Commonwealth Star.<ref name="af41">''Australian Flags'', p. 41.</ref> A seventh point was added to the Commonwealth Star in 1909 to represent the territories.
==Misconceptions==
There were five judges for the competition and not seven. This misunderstanding seems to have arisen from the Review of Reviews listing the seven names of the competition's "judges and officials"<ref name="auto">Review of Reviews, 20 September 1901, p. 241.</ref> The Review of Reviews gives the names of the five judges in the 20 August 1901 edition,<ref>Review of Reviews, 20 August 1901, p. 128.</ref> and subsequently confirms that number on 20 September 1901.<ref name="auto"/> Mr J.S. Blackham, chief of staff of the Melbourne Herald, was the competition official "who superintended the classification and arrangement of the flags" for "when they were shown in Melbourne's Exhibition Building";<ref>Review of Reviews, 20 August 1901, p.127</ref><ref>Review of Reviews, 20 September 1901, pp. 241, 243, 244.</ref> Mr G. Stewart was another competition official<ref>Review of Reviews, 20 September 1901, p. 243</ref> described by Frank Cayley as "an expert in heraldry".<ref>Cayley, op. cit., p. 98.</ref><ref>Ivor Evans, "History of the Australian Flag", in Crux Australis: Journal of the Flag Society of Australia, Vol. 1/1 (June 2, 1984), p. 37.</ref><ref>The Review of Reviews for Australasia, 20 August 1901, p. 127, 128; 20 September 1901, p. 241, 243, 244.</ref><ref>John C. Vaughan, "Australia's National Flag Competition", in Crux Australis: Journal of the Flag Society of Australia, Vol. 2/1, No. 7 (July 1985), p. 21-22.</ref>
Several secondary sources have claimed the conditions stated the design should "be based on the British ensigns ... signalling to the beholder that it is an Imperial union ensign of the British Empire" and around the Southern Cross. In fact there was no such stipulation made either by the Reviews of Reviews, which had received the majority of the entries, or the federal government (although contestants in the Review of Reviews contest were advised that "A flag, perhaps, which omitted these symbols might have small chances of success; yet it seems unwise to fetter the competition with any such absolute limitations").<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.anfa-national.org.au/education/1901-competition-gazette-27/review-of-reviews/|title=1901 Competition - Review of Reviews}}</ref> This error stems from Gwen Swinburne's 1969 book, Unfurled: Australia's Flag, in which she incorrectly attributes the above quote as a condition for the 1901 Federal Flag Competition. She had apparently used a passage from Barlow Cumberland's 1909 book, History of the [[Union Jack]] and the Flag of the Empire, as the basis of her quote.<ref>Barlow Cumberland, History of the Union Jack and the Flag of the Empire, William Briggs, Toronto, 1909, p. 289.</ref><ref>Crux Australis: Journal of the Flag Society of Australia, Vol. 8/3, No. 35 (July–September 1992), p. 141 (endnote 10).</ref><ref>G.H. Swinburne, Unfurled: Australia's Flag, Sirius Publications, Melbourne, 1969, p. 76.</ref><ref>June Cadzow, "Standard Debate Over the Ensign Raised Up Again", in The Australian, 26 January 1984.</ref><ref>Our Own Flag, (Ausflag pamphlet).</ref><ref>Henry Reynolds, "An Erstwhile Ensign", in Modern Times, June 1992, pp. 4-5.</ref>
== Gallery of Entries ==
<gallery>
Entries for the 1901 Australian Flag Contest-1.jpg
Entries for the 1901 Australian Flag Contest-2.jpg
Entry for the 1901 Australian Flag Contest-3.jpg
Entry for the 1901 Australian Flag Contest-4.jpg
Entry for the 1901 Australian Flag Contest-6.jpg
Enties for the 1901 Australian Flag Contest-7.jpg
Entry for the 1901 Australian Flag Contest-8.jpg
</gallery>
==See also==
{{Portal|Australia|Heraldry and vexillology}}
* [[Australian flag debate]]
* [[List of proposed Australian flags]]
* [[List of Australian flags]]
* [[List of proposed New Zealand flags]]
* [[c:Proposed flags of Australia|List on commons]]
==References==
{{reflist|2}}
==External links==
*[https://www.anfa-national.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Review-of-Reviews-complete-1.pdf Digitised copy of ''Review of Reviews for Australasia'', 20 September 1901]
[[Category:Flags of Australia]]
[[Category:1901 in Australia]]
[[Category:Arts competitions]]
[[Category:Competitions in Australia]]