National Flag Day at the Royal Exhibition Building

National Flag Day at the Royal Exhibition Building Katie Saarikko Fri, 04/09/2026 - 16:47 Our national symbols, whether it is the wattle, the opal or the National Flag, are more just emblems. They capture the Australian story, where we have come from, and the future we are building together. On 1 January 1901, the Commonwealth of Australia was born. In May that year, members of Australia’s first Parliament assembled right here in the Exhibition Building where we stand today. There were 12,000 invited guests. Over 100,000 people celebrated on the streets of Melbourne. And later that month, the Duchess of York used a golden key to touch a button that flashed a telegraph message to stations across the country. The message was three words. “ Hoist the flag " An estimated 650,000 schoolchildren nationwide watched the flag being raised in celebration of our new Parliament. Except the flag they saw raised was not our own. We had our own Parliament, but we did not have our own flag. Did we leave it to our new Parliament to sort it out? Of course not. We made it a competition, open to everyone. Nearly 1 in every 100 Australians put forward an idea. All up, 32,000 flag options were on the ta