Essay on Australia's Road to Federation

đź“ŚCategory: Australia, History, World
đź“ŚWords: 601
đź“ŚPages: 3
đź“ŚPublished: 02 September 2021

Australia in the 19th century was made up of six independent colonies South Australia, Western Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania that were subject to the British Parliament. Furthermore, every settlement had its own laws, rail lines, measure, postage stamps and deals. Until the colonies found their way towards federation.

The first practical step towards Federation was the creation of the Federal Council of Australasia, which was formed on the 14th of August in 1885. The noble creator Samual Griffans was all for Federation which is one of the reasons for why he made the federal council. The former of the federal council (Samual Griffans) was born on 21st June 1845 and died on the 9th of August 1920. The federal council met countless times between 1886 and 1899, but it had no executive power. After all New South Wales remained distant so whatever they did generally did not matter.

On October 24, 1889, Henry Parkes gave a speech at the Tenterfield school of arts, on the want for the six Australian colonies to federate unite into one nation. The Tenterfield oration was huge because, although politicians have been discussing about federation for a fair bit of time this was the first direct appeal to public. The speech read by Henry Parkes was “The great question which we have to consider is, whether the time has not now arisen for the creation on this Australian continent of an Australian government and an Australian parliament ……. Surely what the Americans have dine by war, the Australians can bring about in peace.

Later on, during 1893 was the Corowa convention, which was located in the Oddfellow’s hall, New South Wales, Corowa. It was created by Jhon Quick, a lawyer form Bendigo. The Corowa Convention was a political meeting held to discuss a proposed federation of the Australian colonies, and it passed the Corowa plan to implant a new constitutional process.

On 18 December 1894, the South Australian Parliament handed the constitution amendment (adult suffrage) act. The rules changed in the end result of a decade lengthy struggle to border ladies withinside the electoral process. Though no longer -  - granted ladies withinside the colony to vote, however allowed them to face for the parliament.

In 1898, referendums on the commonwealth constitution bill were held in New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria. a majority of ‘yes’ votes were recorded in each colony but in New South Wales the civil law required a limit of 80 000 which was not achieved as you can see on the following table.

Later on in 1899, as a result of an adjustment to the constitution suggested by New South Wales, the colonies organized a second round of referendums. However, this time New South Wales required only a simple majority of ‘yes’ votes. Furthermore, Queensland also joined the process as you can see.

However, by 1900 Western Australia had still not taken steps to hold a referendum. In protest residents of the Eastern Goldfields took steps to form a separate colony. Then finally on 31st July 1900, when the commonwealth constitution bill had already been enacted by the British parliament, a vote was still held throughout that associate, outsized majority voted in favor of Federation.

On January 1, 1901, the Commonwealth of Australia was formed by the combination of the six existing self-governing British colonies of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, Australian state, and Western Australia. This was known as Federation, and it was the product of a decades-long struggle by many people and organizations.

Federation was indeed a very significant, political achievement, because the colonies had to go through a lot of struggles to secure their interests. After all the smaller colonies had feared that their interests would be ignored by the larger colonies since New South Wales competed with Victoria for leadership. However, the limit had been reached, and we finally found the road towards federation.

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