An Australia Day artwork by student Jessie Du will be viewed by millions on Google's home page today but one feature of her original design is conspicuously absent - the Aboriginal flag.

Jessie's Australia-themed version of the Google logo beat thousands of other entrants in the search giant's Doodle 4 Google competition, which ran in schools across the country. Jessie, 11, is a student at Rydalmere East Public School.

Before and after ... (above) Jessie Du's winning logo, (below) the altered version that appeared online.

Her entry fashioned the letters in Google's logo out of native Australian animals, such as the kangaroo, koala and emu. The central "o" in the original design was the Aboriginal flag but this has been edited out of the final version that adorns Google's home page today.

The discrepancy caused much consternation on Twitter, but a Google spokeswoman explained that the editing of Jessie's design was due to a copyright dispute.