The badge is believed to have been originally designed by Robert Craig, a teacher at the School of Arts in Adelaide, and officially gazetted on 14 January 1904.

It too was a defaced British Blue Ensign but with a black disc in the fly containing the Southern Cross and the two pointers (Alpha and Beta Centauri).

The badge design was an artistic rendition of the arrival of Britannia (a white woman in flowing garb and holding a shield, representing the new settlers) meeting an Aboriginal sitting with a spear on a rocky shoreline.

On 29 October 2016, a motion to adopt a new, "more multicultural" state flag was passed at the South Australian Labor Party conference.

It is identical in design and construction to the flag of South Australia, except that it features a St. Edward's Crown above the badge to represent vice-regal power.