Australian Federation

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Australian Federation

• Or How the States Learned to Stop Worrying and
  Love Being a Nation

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Australian Federation

• Or How the States Learned to Stop Worrying and
  Love Being a Nation

Im not worried!
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What was Australia Like Before Federation?

• Why did people start to become interested in what
  it meant to be Australian?
• What was the first state to be created?

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What was Australia Like Before Federation?

• Before 1901, Australia was just a number of
  separate British Colonies, who were more or less
  like separate countries.
• Australia as one nation, under one government,
  didnt exist.

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A Divided Country
We dont actually exist yet.
We have nice weather, So were fine.
We have all the best Resources and were keeping
them To ourselves.
We dont have to listen to anything those
Victorians say
Where is Tasmania?
We look after ourselves

• No-one on the mainland
• Cares about us

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The Changing States
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So who wanted Federation then?

• In 1901 Australias population numbered
  3,788,123, but these people were split over 6
  states. (The NT and ACT didnt exist yet.)

Australia had been settled over 100 years
earlier, which meant that a lot of people (that
is, people from European backgrounds) in the
country had actually been born there, rather than
being shipped in from overseas.
Understandably, these people were interested in
what it actually meant to be Australian.
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The Rise of Nationalism

• The idea of being "Australian" began to be
  celebrated in songs and poems. It was also helped
  by improvements in transport and communications,
  such as the establishment of a telegraph between
  the colonies in 1872.

This surge of interest in what it meant to be
Australian led to a movement called
Nationalism. Nationalists wanted to define
Australia as a country, instead of just a group
of separate states.
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What was Australia Like Before Federation?

• Why did people start to become interested in what
  it meant to be Australian?
• What was the first state to be created?

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The United States

• Why were some Australians so inspired by the USA?
  

What was the cause of some concern, given what
had happened in the USA?
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The United States

• Nationalists were very inspired by what had
  recently happened in the USA.

Like Australia, the USA had started out as a
mostly British Colony. However, tensions had
broken out between the British and American
Colonists, mostly to do with having to pay tax to
the British.
These tensions led to open warfare in 1775. To
combat the British, the Americans formed a
government to co-ordinate the states in their
military effort. It was the first time the states
had functioned as one country.
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Civil War

• However, it wasnt all clear sailing for the
  Americans. After winning the war with the
  British, more and states became part of the
  Union, which led to more tensions!

Arguments over the rights and powers of
individual states (mostly to do with slavery and
how much control the federal government would
have) ended up in the States going to war with
each other in 1861. Lots of people died.
You can understand why some Australians would be
worried about forming such a Union
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The United States

• Why were some Australians so inspired by the USA?
  

What was the cause of some concern, given what
had happened in the USA?
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The Road to Federation
Who was Henry Parkes?
When did he first suggest Australia should become
one nation?
What were the states starting to worry about?
When did most states meet and agree that
Federation sounded like a good idea? What did
they then spend 10 years deciding?
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The People of Federation
Henry Parkes, then the Colonial Secretary of New
South Wales, first proposed a Federal Council
body in 1867.
Born in 1816, Henry had no formal education. He
first worked as a brickie before starting his own
business which quickly failed.
He actually left Australia in 1838 with his wife
(the daughter of a butcher) to find work in the
UK.
6 months later, after working as a labourer, he
and his family returned to Sydney, where he found
work as an Ironmonger.
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Henry Parkes
Henry then opened an Ivory Tuner business, which
failed, leaving him in deep financial trouble.
By this time though, Henry had started becoming
involved in local politics and had taken up
writing.
For a lousy businessman with no formal education,
it seems Henry could actually write really well.
He had several books of poetry published that
were very well received.
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The Road to Federation
Henry quickly rose through the political world
and was soon the Colonial Secretary of NSW.
In 1867, he put forward the idea for a National
Union to the NSW government.
Unfortunately, the British Representative for the
Colonies said no.
NO!!
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The Road to Federation continues
Luckily, Henry didnt give up. Even if he was
getting older and his beard was getting longer.
(check out the picture to the left)
Henry ended up being the Premier of NSW 5 times
between 1872 and 1891. In 1880, as Premier, he
brought up the idea of Federation again at a
meeting of all of the Australian Premiers.
I still think we should have a national
government. What do you guys reckon?
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Worries
The heads of the individual states were starting
to worry about quite a few things.
Communication a telegraph system was already
established in most parts of the country but
needed more expansion. Who was going to pay for
it and organise it?
People were also worried about the number of
Chinese workers coming to Australia. They wanted
to set up some form of Immigration Control.
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More Worries
They also worried about the workers bandying
together and forming unions, which would make
them harder to control.
People also wanted to make sure taxes would be
more or less the same across the country. Too
many takes would be bad for business and trade
with other countries.
Also, people were a bit nervous about the large
number of Germans and French who were gathering
in Papua New Guinea. Australia needed a military
force of its own
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The First Federation

• Because of these fears, a Federal Council of
  Australasia was formed in 1888, to represent the
  affairs of the colonies in their relations with
  the South Pacific islands.

New South Wales and New Zealand didnt join.
Without NSW, the Federation wasnt as strong as
it should have been. NSW was one of the
strongest, wealthiest states. All the same, it
was a good start.
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Getting Closer

• Henry Parkes was still keen to establish a
  Federal Government involving all of the states.
  Not many people thought he would be able to do it
  though.

At a conference in 1889, he claimed
I could confederate these colonies in twelve
months"
To which someone replied that he should, as it
would be a great finish to his life. In other
words, doing so would kill him.
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Conferences and Congresses

• By the end of a conference in 1890 (which took
  place in February in a blistering 39 degrees),
  most people seemed to think a Federal Government
  was a good idea.

However, first off they had to decide what sort
of government they wanted. A lot of arguments
went on about this over the next few years.
Some people thought it was a good idea to have an
American System of Government. (The Americans
were seen as being a good example to the young
Australian nation.)
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Which Government?

• British Government was split between two houses,
  an upper house and lower house. It also provided
  a good model for government beneath a Monarch,
  unlike the US.

• Ultimately the American model was mixed with the
  British system. Members of the upper house would
  be chosen by Ministers appointed by the
  government. These Ministers would come from
  whichever party had the majority in the lower
  house.

Everything was sorted, now they just needed to
get the Australian people (the white Australians
anyway) to agree to join a federation.
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The Road to Federation
Who was Henry Parkes?
When did he first suggest Australia should become
one nation?
What were the states starting to worry about?
When did most states meet and agree that
Federation sounded like a good idea? What did
they then spend 10 years deciding?
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Federation
What is a referendum?
Who was the last state to join? Why do you think
they took so long to join?
What happened to Henry Parkes?
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Referendums

• A referendum is a poll in which citizens of a
  state or a country vote on whether to make a
  major change.
• In 1898, NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and South
  Australia voted to become part of the federation.
• In 1899, they voted again and even more people
  thought it was a good idea. Queensland also
  agreed to join the Federation.
• In 1900, Western Australia finally voted to join.

In 1901, the first Australian Federal Government
was created.
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The Death of Henry Parkes

• The last few years of Henrys life were pretty
  rough.
• He went through immense personal turmoil
  following the death of his first wife. He
  remarried quickly to Eleanor Dixon and they had
  two more children. Dixon soon died. Parkes
  remarried yet again, this time to Julia Lynch,
  but died of pneumonia on April 27, 1896, four
  years before Australia became a federation.

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Federation
What is a referendum?
Who was the last state to join? Why do you think
they took so long to join?
What happened to Henry Parkes?