Australia became a Federation as a Commonwealth of six States under the British Crown on January 1, 1901, whereas the 13 colonies that became the United States of America when they declared their Independence as a Republic on July 4, 1776 fought a bloody war with British forces for years, and then haggled through negotiations until treaties were signed on September 3, 1783. Although the USA story is literally more gutsy than ours, ours is a story worth telling. Great efforts were made to tell the story for the Centenary of Federation in 2001. Federation has now completed 110 years. This week we revisit the topic and start a long series which will look at the background to Federation, including how Armidale responded to the push.
As usual, let’s start at the beginning. Aborigines were the occupiers of the land when James Cook claimed the east coast of Australia for the Crown in 1770. Their gradual dispossession began with the arrival of the First Fleet in January 1788 when New South Wales was founded. New colonies were formed by breaking away from the “Mother Colony’ during the first six decades of the Nineteenth Century: Van Diemen’s Land in 1825 (changed its name to Tasmania in 1853); South Australia in 1836; New Zealand (which had been formally attached to NSW only in early 1840) in late 1840; Victoria in 1851; and Queensland in 1859. Western Australia had been established in its own right as a Crown Colony in 1828.
Although it was obvious that some form of administrative union was desirable for dealing with common interests we did not rush into Federation. It was a long haul. From 1842 scarcely a year passed without a Federation of the Australian colonies being discussed by colonial administrators. Children were born and grew to old age hearing federation proposals before it became a reality in 1901. There was a serious push for Federation from the early 1880s. By the late nineties there was little opposition to the principle of union as such. The main points of contention were details of the fiscal policy, the protection of States’ rights and other specific aspects of the proposed Commonwealth Constitution. Armidale’s response to the push for Federation can be measured from 1897 when the first voting opportunity was presented.
Before Federation each of the Australian colonies had separate and independent political systems under the Crown, but they also had many common interests and concerns: lighthouses, immigration, quarantine, railways, rivers, defence and tariffs. Some of the colonies levied customs duties on imports from other colonies. This created barriers for the sale of goods from one colony to another, as well as causing irritation to travellers who crossed colonial borders. Tariffs became the source of the greatest colonial friction. Victoria had high tariffs to protect its industries, but NSW had free trade, resulting in lower prices for most goods. Policy differences on tariffs became the principal dividing lines between the political parties. Solving the intercolonial trade problems became one of the biggest challenges for advocates of Federation.
Self-governing communities do not readily surrender their powers. One strong motivation in the drive for Federation came from sentiment which claimed that God or destiny intended Australia to be a nation, a single geographical unit, a whole continent with only natural boundaries. Other nations had artificial frontiers; Australia’s were the sea. Our land was “girt by sea”. Moreover, the social uniformity suggested that Australia was marked for nationhood. The people were viewed as being of one blood or stock or race, speaking the same language and sharing a British heritage.
A positive jolt in the push for Federation was given in the 1880s when the designs of the Germans and the French in the South-West Pacific alarmed the Australian colonies. In April 1883 Queensland’s Premier, Thomas McIlwraith, took action to forestall German designs on New Guinea. McIlwraith ordered the Police Magistrate at Thursday Island to go to Port Moresby to claim the eastern half of the island for the Queen, but the British Government disallowed the annexation. Simultaneously, there was concern in the Australian colonies about rumours that France intended to occupy the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu). Victoria’s Premier, James Service, joined with McIlwraith in planning a national convention of the colonies to put more pressure on Britain and to plan a Federation of the Australian colonies, because Australia needed a national government to deal with the Pacific crisis. A determined move to create a Federation had commenced. NSW gave a cool response to the proposed Federal convention. When the Convention met in Sydney in November 1883 a Federal Council was established, composed of representatives from the various colonial parliaments. NSW ensured that the Council had few powers and then refused to join it, thereby delivering a near-fatal blow. When the Council had its first meeting, at Hobart in January 1886, there were no delegates from NSW or South Australia.
Defence considerations gave the Federation issue another positive jolt in 1889. Early that year the British War Office sent Major-General James Bevan Edwards to Australia to investigate the colonies’ defence capabilities. His report in October 1889 was very critical. Edwards urged the immediate Federation of all the colonies’ defence forces under a single command and the establishment of a Federal military college and a uniform railway gauge for the movement of troops and supplies. Thus, by October 1889, three things were clear. There was a definite need for a Federation of the Australian colonies, but any efforts in the drive to a Federation were bound to fail if they were not supported by NSW, and NSW would support a Federation only if the fiscal issue was resolved satisfactorily.
Sir Henry Parkes (the NSW Premier) used the Edward’s Report as an opportunity for NSW to take the lead in the Federation push. After an unsuccessful approach to Duncan Gillies (Victoria’s Premier), Parkes went to Brisbane where he spent a week talking to key people in Queensland’s Parliament. Returning for home by train on October 24 1889, Parkes stopped off at Tenterfield which had once been his parliamentary electorate. A significant event in the Federation story would occur that night.
