Coogee Media

That's the way Australian participation in the modern Olympics since is often portrayed. It is often said that since the modern games started in 1896, and Australia is one of the few nations to compete at every summer games.

That is not strictly true!

Collection of British Colonies Before 1901
Even though prior to 1901, Australia and New Zealand were a collection of British colonies, an Australasian Olympic Committee was formed in 1895 and recognised. With the likelihood of an Australian Federation coming, it was assumed by many that it would also include New Zealand.

For Games prior to 1 January 1901, Australian teams could not have competed under an "Australian" flag which did not yet exist, and anyway, technically, represented Australasian sports, which included New Zealand.

Australian Flag Finally Approved 1908
An Australian flag was first displayed on 3rd September 1901 when Prime Minister Edmund Barton announced the winners of a competition of a design for an Australian flag. At that time the flag was known as the Commonwealth blue ensign and only later became known as the Australian National Flag. But that first flag was only an interim design and needed British approval. Amendments to the design eventually led to the design we now know as the Australian National Flag.

1901 interim version of the Australian flag
Compare it to the final version approved in 1908 (below)

The five joint winners of the flag design competition all produced designs strikingly similar to each other with the Union flag in the top left quarter and the left-hand side featuring a Southern Cross of five stars. In the lower left hand quarter was a large six-pointed star with each point representing one of of the federating colonies, or states. This design was submitted to various British authorities for approval (thus underscoring the fact that Federation did not represent independence from the British Empire). First up, the British admiralty took issue with the design having different numbers of points on the Southern Cross (9,8,7,6) to represent various degrees of intensity in the night sky because it made manufacture too difficult. The design was standardised with the four brighter stars having 7 points, and the smaller star, five points.

Next up the King needed to take a look at it. George V, by all accounts a man of good taste and attention to detail, said that the six-pointed Federation star seemed to him unattractive and out of place. He also noticed that the Federation star sitting atop the Commonwealth Coat of Arms had a different design with seven points. So, on 8 December, 1908, the Commonwealth finally approved the Australian flag with a seven pointed federation star, after the end of the 1908 Olympics.

Not the National Flag
The blue Australian ensign was at first designed not as a national flag, but a flag to fly over Commonwealth (federal) buildings such as post offices and government buildings, so as to distinguish them from State entities. The British Union flag was still the national and if both flags were flown together, the Union flag was supposed to be in the dominant position. The Commonwealth Government and flag suppliers restricted sales of the blue ensign to the public, so there was widespread adoption of the red ensign by the public as a quasi-official National Flag. Not until the 1940s was the blue ensign generally recognised as a national flag, and the red ensign used for maritime activities. Until then, it was not uncommon for the red ensign to be held aloft by flag bearers at parades.

The New Zealand flag with four five-pointed, red-coloured, white-bordered stars (Southern Cross) was an adaptation of an earlier maritime design. It was formally adopted in 1902 as the New Zealand national flag, supplanting the Union flag.

Union Jack Carried
So if "Australian" or "Australasian" teams had marched in the 1896 and 1900 Games, it would have been under the British (Union Jack) Flag. Only one example of each national flag was displayed at the opening ceremony, and this person was termed the representative of the "British Empire", presumably including the Australasian colonies. There was not even an individual Australian athlete carrying an additional Union Jack.

The style of the formal opening ceremony with teams marching behind a national flag did not begin until the 1906 Intercalated Games of 1906. The 1904 Games in St Louis in the US proved to be such a schmozzle that another set of games were held in Athens in 1906; recognised at the time as true Olympics, but since downgraded to something called Intercalated Games of 1906. It is unclear under what terminology or flag Australians who attended the 1904 and 1906 games competed.

Australasian Olympic Flag, 1908 & 1912

"Australasian" Teams
Teams marching behind a flag bearer displaying their national flag, officially, happened at the 1908 Olympics and at each set of Games since. For the 1908 and 1912 Olympics, an Australasian team continued to be fielded - combining athletes from Australia and the Dominion of New Zealand who competed together. Remarkably, a new quasi-official flag was devised to be carried by the team's flagbearer.

Mina Mylie Wylie's Olympic blazer from the 1912 Stockholm Games, in a 2023 exhibition. The emblem on the pocket reads "Australasia - Swimming". The design of the emblem bears not relation to the design of the Australasian Olympic Flag. This was the first Olympics where women were allowed to compete in swimming, and she won the silver medal for the 100m. (Fanny Durack won the gold). (From the collection of the Randwick and District Historical Society Inc.)

In 1920, the first Australia-only Olympic team competed at the Antwerp Games. Australia sent a 13-member team winning two silver medals and a bronze. It is not clear whether they marched under the blue or red ensign. The red ensign was used during the 1936 Berlin Games.

During the 1940s, the Chifley federal government officially recognised the blue ensign as the Australian national flag, and the red ensign as the maritime ensign. The blue ensign should have been carried by Australian Olympic teams since then.

Australian Blue & Red Ensigns