Commonwealth of Australia Gazette shows that a contract approving the manufacture of 14,000 of these badges was awarded to Australian Weaving Company Pty Ltd and approved on 1 December 1916. So it must have been approved after the metal badge and was probably specifically for wear on military uniform for those returned men who were on Home Service or serving with their former militia unit.
I imagine it would have eventually become obsolete by war's end as all returned men would have been wearing the colour patch of the unit they had last served in, even reinforcements abroad who had not been posted to a unit were allotted a colour patch at the end of the war to distinguish them.
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