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The Federal Council of Australasia was set up, and a meeting attended by delegates from all six colonies, and from New Zealand and Fiji. The main purpose of the meeting was to ask Britain to be their ally in war and to defend their country if they were ever threatened.
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Sir Henry Parkes was a controversial politician and was a prominent supporter of Federation, who premier of New South Wales five times.
In August 1889, he stopped in Tenterfield on his way to Sydney from Brisbane by train. He spoke to locals at a function, chanlleging them to think ‘national’. -
An Australian Convention was held. Representatives from all six colonies and New Zealand attended with a purpose to draft a national constitution. It proposed:
- a federal government
- state governments
- free trade between colonies
- a national defense force
However, the Federation issue was set aside due to depression and strikes. -
A Delegate from Victoria proposed that colonial governments ask their voters to elect representatives for a Federal Constitutional Convention.
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From this convention, a draft constitution was taken back to the five colonial governments. The draft plan saw a two-house federal parliament with an upper house of review that would represent states equally and protect rights. Delegates re-assembled in Sydney in September (and again in January 1898 in Melbourne) to consider other issues; free trade, immigration, etc.
On 16 March 1898, the convention agreed on a draft constitution to be put to the voters of all colonies. -
April 1899 to July 1900
Votes were cast.
Image: Referendum vote on the Commonwealth bill, 1899–1900 -
A group of delegates (one notable politician from each colony) traveled to London to have the draft constitution passed by the British Parliament. The Australian Constitution was passed by the British Parliament, with the British monarch, Queen Victoria, giving it royal assent in September 1900.
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The Governor-General representing Queen Victoria swore in Sir Edmund Barton and eight chosen ministers on 1 January 1901. (They would run the govenment until the elections.) The Commonwealth of Australia was then proclaimed by Sir Edmund Barton in Centennial Park, Sydney.
Image: The opening of the first Commonwealth Parliament at the Exhibition Building, Melbourne, 9 May 1901
