<P> The 1901 Federal Flag Design Competition was an Australian government initiative announced by Prime Minister Edmund Barton to find a flag for the newly federated Commonwealth of Australia . In terms of its essential elements the winning entry is the official flag of Australia . </P> <P> After Federation on 1 January 1901 and following receipt of a request from the British government to design a new flag, the new Commonwealth Government held an official competition for a new federal flag in April . The competition attracted 32,823 entries, including those originally sent to the one held earlier by the Review of Reviews . One of these was submitted by an unnamed governor of a colony . 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 . Each competitor was required to submit two coloured sketches, a red ensign for the merchant service and public use, and a blue ensign for naval and official use . The designs were judged on seven criteria: loyalty to the Empire, Federation, history, heraldry, distinctiveness, utility and cost of manufacture . 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 . 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 . 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 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 . 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 . </P> <P> A simplified version of the competition - winning design was submitted to the British Parliament in December 1901 . Prime Minister Edmund Barton announced in the Commonwealth Gazette that Edward VII had officially recognised the design as the Flag of Australia on 11 February 1903 . This version made all the stars in the Southern Cross seven - pointed apart from the smallest, and is the same as the existing flag except the six - pointed Commonwealth Star . </P>

Who won the competition to design the australian flag