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Becoming First Prime Minister of Australia
Edmund Barton Became the first Prime Minister of Australia completing his childhood dream of being a prime minister or judge. -
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First Federal Election
Voters elected 75 members to the House of Representatives. Voters in the six states elected 36 representatives to the first Senate. This was the only federal election to take place on two days, 29 and 30 March. -
Parliament Sits In Melbourne's Parliament House
The first meeting of the Australian parliament took place in the Melbourne Exhibition Building on 9 May 1901. By the next day, parliament had moved to its new home for the next 26 years, the Melbourne Parliament House. -
Parliament House For a Day
The grand opening of parliament in Melbourne's Exhibition Building in the morning, was followed by the first sitting of the House of Representatives and the Senate in their borrowed home, Victoria's Parliament House. -
An Australian Flag Chosen
A huge flag showing the winning design of Union Jack and Southern Cross on a blue background was unfurled over the Exhibition Building, Melbourne. The same design on a red background was used for merchant ships. It was many years before the blue flag officially replaced the British Union Jack for all other uses. -
A White Australia
The enactment of the Immigration Restriction Act meant a dictation test became an effective way of excluding people from Australia. It enabled the government to create a predominantly European population. The 'White Australia' policy was finally dismantled in 1966 by the Holt government. -
Boer War ends
From 1899 when the war in South Africa broke out, troops from the Australian colonies had been sent to fight for Britain against the Afrikaners (former Dutch colonists). Despite the passionate arguments of Leader of the Opposition GH Reid, parliament agreed to send Commonwealth troops. They arrived shortly before the surrender of the Boer army. -
Coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra
When Queen Victoria died on 22 January 1901, her son Edward acceded to the throne. Prime Minister Edmund Barton led the Australian representation at the coronation in Westminster Abbey the following year. -
The empire cable
Postmaster-General James Drake opened the submarine telegraph cable from Vancouver, Canada to Southport, Queensland. This completed an all-British link thirty years after a London to Darwin cable was connected to South Australia’s overland telegraph line. The telegraph cable circling the globe enabled information to be sent by Morse code in ‘dot-dash’ electrical signals. -
Edmund Resigns
Sir Edmund Barton resigned as the Prime Minister of Australia Becoming a Judge of The High Court of Australia -
Becoming a Judge
Sir Edmund Barton added to his childhood dream of becoming a prime minister or judge by becoming a Judge of The High Court of Australia in 1903 until death in 1920