Although Sir Henry Parkes (who had been the NSW Premier five times) was given the title “Father of Federation’ after he died in April 1896, the attribution was regularly questioned by scholars, especially in the preparations for the Centenary of Federation in 2001, when the contribution of others was highlighted. Women, of course, were invisible, but were doing great things and getting no credit, so officially there were no Mothers of Federation. Time has passed and Federation has now completed 110 years. This week we continue a long series which will look at the background to Federation, including how Armidale responded to the push.
We begin with the bits that are usually omitted when the story of the 1889 Tenterfield Oration is told. Let’s start in 1881 when Sir Henry Parkes, as Premier of NSW, made an official visit to England. On his return he unsuccessfully contested the East Sydney seat in the NSW Legislative Assembly in November 1882. Voting for the various seats extended over two or three weeks and the contest had not yet been decided at Tenterfield, where the sitting member, A.R. Fraser, had announced he did not intend contesting the election. A local businessman, Edward Reeves Whereat, was going to stand, but he stood down in favour of Sir Henry as the candidate for Tenterfield. Sir Henry was elected unopposed on December 4, 1882.
Armidale’s Railway Station was opened early in February 1883 and Sir Henry arrived here by train two weeks later, but “his presence attracted no notice”. He stayed a night and left Armidale “at an early hour next morning for Glen Innes”, where he was given a grand welcome, and a grander one at Tenterfield.
In July 1883 Sir Henry sailed to London as a private citizen. Tenterfield refused to accept his resignation and seemed to have no objection to having its representative absent. Returning to Australia, Sir Henry retired from Parliament in November 1884. Within a short time he re-entered Parliament as a member for Argyle. The Tenterfield seat was won by Charles Alfred Lee who went on to hold it for the next 35 years. Meanwhile the Great Northern Railway had headed north. Although there had been great disputes about whether the line would go via Inverell or Armidale, there was no doubt it would go to Tenterfield because Sir Henry did not forget his old electorate.
It was on the new railway line that Sir Henry (again the Premier) went south from the Queensland border to Tenterfield in October 1889. Having travelled from Sydney to Brisbane by boat, he had spent a week talking to key people in Queensland’s Parliament about the need for Federation, and was returning to Sydney by train on October 24, 1889, when he alighted at Tenterfield to meet old friends. A half day holiday had been declared in the town although Sir Henry was not due to arrive until 5 pm. A banquet in his honour, attended by about 80 people, including women, was held at the School of Arts building, in a small hall lit by kerosene lamps.
During his oration Sir Henry told his former constituents of the inadequacy of the Federal Council for defence of the Australian colonies, and said that conditions were now ripe for Federation. He suggested that “what the Americans had achieved by the War of Independence, Australians could bring about in peace”. Sir Henry went on to outline the steps that should be taken to bring about Federation. He said that the Colonial Parliaments “must appoint a convention of leading men from all the colonies … delegates who would fully represent the opinion of the different Parliaments”. The proposed convention “would have to devise the constitution which would be necessary for bringing into existence a federal government with a federal parliament.”
Sir Henry called upon the governments of Australia’s separate colonies “to unite and create a great national government for all Australia”. It was a rousing but not widely reported speech. The Tenterfield Oration was reported in full in the Sydney Morning Herald but not in newspapers in any of the other colonial capital cities. Interestingly, Sir Henry makes no mention of his Tenterfield Oration in his autobiography.
Armidale’s two newspapers reported the Tenterfield Oration, and the fact that Armidale people were unable to pay their respects to Sir Henry when his train passed through Armidale en route to Sydney. However, he received a deputation at Tamworth. The special train had left Tenterfield on Saturday morning and made one of the fastest trips on record at that time – the 480 miles, which usually took the mail train 21 hours, was covered in about 14 hours.
Responding to the positive encouragement he received upon his return to Sydney, Sir Henry gave more inspiring speeches. They were the catalyst for the great events of the 1890s which eventually led to Federation. Sir Henry continued to refuse to join the Federal Council, but suggested the Council should meet informally.
Representatives of seven colonies (including New Zealand) met at the Federation Conference in Melbourne in February 1890. At the banquet Sir Henry gave his famous speech in which he declared that “the crimson thread of kinship runs through us all.” Lacking authority to initiate formal moves, the delegates resolved to ensure their Parliaments would take steps to obtain “the union of the colonies, under one legislative and executive government, on principles just to the several colonies.”
Sir Henry told the Conference that the difficult tariff question did not have to be settled before Federation; rather it could be left for the Federal Parliament to decide. This suggestion was Sir Henry’s greatest contribution to Federation. The tariff issue – the “lion in the path to Federation” – had been skilfully by-passed. When the grand oratory finally ended, the tangible outcome was that they would meet again to draft a federal constitution.
