In the 1960s we had a badge researcher and author named Alfred Festburg who worked for or with the MGO branch of the Australian Army in Melbourne.
Mr Festburg only knew what the army records told him, not what the army actually wore. He was the only person I have ever met capable of denying the evidence of his own eyes: if you showed him an actual badge, he would say that the army never wore it.
His major work was a well researched book on Australian Army Lineage which showed all the origins and re-naming of regiments over the years. It does not mention regimental Colours.
He also wrote the first illustrated book we ever had on Australian badges, the ones actually current in 1967. I got a mention in this when he sent an official army photographer to my place, but he could not be told that the book contained a lot of mistakes (e.g. the Survey Corps did NOT have a large KC hat badge, (he just enlarged the photo of a collar badge) and he added a miniature King's crown to invent a two-piece KC Signal Corps hat badge, etc.
Attached a scan of the 1912-18 badge forerunners of the Heidelburg regiment (Princes Hill and Brunswick Carlton) with blue not red as worn later by the 1930-42 regiment. Maybe this might help answer the question.
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