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Annie Dorrington (1866-1926) was an Australian artist who was known for her wildflower paintings. She also designed the Australian flag.

Early life and Background
Annie Whistler was born on 19 March 1866 at Litchfield Ashe, Southampton, England. She was the second child of Richard Whistler, a farmer, and his wife Sarah Mills, née Vines. Richard was a distant relation of the artist James McNeil Whistler. Her father became a tenant farmer at Winkfield, Berkshire when Annie was 4. The children spent their childhood with riding ponies, painting and skating. Annie was about 5 ft 2 ins (160 cm) tall, with dark, curly hair. Her father died in 1887 and with her mother and siblings she migrated to Victoria in the Britannia in 1890. Charles Dorrington was also on this ship. He is the bailiff who had come to manage the farm after her father's death. Charles and Annie married in St Alban's Church of England, Armadale, Melbourne, on April 18 1892. Her mother, Sarah, did not want her daughters to marry 'wild colonial boys’, Annie alone defied her. As a result she was entirely cut off. Her niece, Kath Dowsing, said in 2001 that her name was simply never mentioned. The couple moved to Western Australia in 1895. They lived at Fremantle in 1897, and moved to Perth next year. Until 1914, Charles was the manager of the Swan River Shipping Co.

Art Career
With no children, Annie had focussed on her art. She painted wildflowers and had completed fifty-four by 1901, which she offered to sell to Bernard Woodward, director of the Western Australian Museum and Art Gallery. Her friend Alice Moore had picked many of the flowers in Kings Park and was given paintings in return. ref name= “bio”/> Annie taught painting privately from her home in 1902-06. There were some announcements of her classes on the newspaper. Adept at capturing the unusual local wildflowers,such as orthrosanthus laxus, chamelaucium aorocladus, red kangaroo paw, and so on. Dorrington exhibited watercolours in the Western Australian pavilion at the Paris (1900) and Glasgow (1902) international exhibitions. Her works were also showed at the St Louis International Exposition (1904) in Missouri, United States of America. And there were fifty paintings of hers included in the Franco-British Exhibition, London (1908). ref name= “bio”/> Her style of painting is very detail and realistic while her style of watercolor is bold and vivid.

Accomplishment
Annie entered an international competition to design the Flag of Australia under the name 'Ahasuerus'—a pet name for her husband in 1901. When the prime minister (Sir) Edmund Barton announced the joint winners of the prize of £200, she was the first named of the five similar designs which all featured the southern cross. The other winners were I. W. Evans, L. J. Hawkins, E. J. Nuttall and William Stevens. The new flag was first raised on 3 September over the Exhibition Building in Melbourne.

Late life
Suffering from depression, Annie was admitted to the Claremont Mental Hospital for a few months treatment in 1908. In 1914 the couple moved to Serpentine where Charles farmed and grew fruit until 1922. In 1918 Annie had again been admitted to Claremont hospital. She died there of cancer on April 21,1926 and was buried with Anglican rites in an unmarked grave in Karrakatta cemetery. Charles died in 1935 and next year. 124 of Annie's works were given to the Art Gallery of Western Australia. Her paintings were displayed in a 1991 survey exhibition there and published in the resulting book. ref name= “bio”/> In 1999 the National Flag Association erected a memorial on her grave.