Field marshal is the highest rank of the Australian Army, and is currently held by Charles III, King of Australia.

[6] During the 1920s and 1930s he expressed public concern over the state of the Australian Military Forces due to financial restrictions brought about by the Great Depression.

It is a common but erroneous belief that the then British Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), Sir William Slim, himself a field marshal (and later Governor-General of Australia), resisted Menzies' recommendation for Blamey's promotion, on the grounds that Dominion generals could not be made field marshals.

Menzies wanted the King to sign off on the promotion so that Blamey would count not just as an Australian field marshal but a British one too.

The shaft of the baton is covered in scarlet velvet inlaid with a succession of golden lions passant along its length and around its circumference.

The pommel (bottom end) of the baton is ornate solid gold with the details of the presentation to Blamey engraved on the base.

It is identical to those of all field marshals of the United Kingdom since The 1st Duke of Wellington in 1813, all of which have been made by the same firm, R. & S. Garrard & Co, Crown Jewellers, of London.

Most recently, the Australian field marshal that was not the sovereign was the father of the current sovereign, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who was promoted to the rank of field marshal in the Australian Army on 1 April 1954[11]—over a year after he attained that rank in the British Army on 15 January 1953.

He first paraded in Australia in field marshal's uniform, complete with baton, in Canberra on 17 February 1954 when he and the Queen attended a meeting of 4,000 Australian ex-servicemen in front of (Old) Parliament House.

[12] At the base of the memorial statue of King George V, the royal couple were greeted by presidents of ex-service organisations, after which they talked to 100 disabled men and proceeded to slowly drive through the ranks.

Later the same day, the prince wore the uniform when he attended the presentation of new colours ceremony at the Royal Military College Duntroon, conducted by the Queen.

During the proceedings, described in contemporary accounts as "poignant" and "spectacular", the new colours replaced those presented to the Royal Military College on the same parade ground by her late father King George VI in 1927 (then the Duke of York).