National Colonial Flag for Australia
1823-1824
The first recorded attempt to design a distinctive “national” flag for Australia occurred in the early 1820’s when Captain John Bingle and Captain John Nicholson placed four stars of the Southern Cross on a white ensign similar to the flag of the Royal Navy in Captain Bingle’s diary, written in the 1880’s, he claims that this first Southern Cross flag was designed in either 1823 or 1824 and that it was accepted as an official flag for Australia by the Government of Sir Thomas Brisbane.