On 13 June 1883,
thousands gathered at Albury station
to celebrate the completion
of the Sydney to Melbourne rail line.
Unfortunately,
the Australian colonies had adopted
different width railway tracks,
requiring passengers and goods
to be loaded onto another train at colonial borders.
Visiting American writer Mark Twain later wrote:
‘Think of the paralysis of intellect
that gave that idea birth.’
Victorian Premier James Service saw the new rail line
as a symbol of colonial unity
that would hasten Britain’s Australian colonies
federating into a new nation.
Since Victoria announced support for Federation in 1857,
New South Wales had been concerned
that Victoria’s greater wealth and population
would leave New South Wales
playing second banana in any Federation fruit salad.
And the inability of the colonies
to agree on the collection and allocation of import duties
saw Federation placed in the ‘too-hard’ basket for decades.
But it wasn’t just railways
that revived interest in Federation in 1883.
Queensland annexed eastern New Guinea
to keep an expansionist Germany out of the Pacific,
but Britain disallowed this and the Germans moved in.
Britain suggested that the colonies should federate
if they wanted to expand
or better protect themselves from foreign power.
The Annexation Crisis mobilised
the Australian Natives Association, or ANA.
Once an insurance body
for its Australian-born white male-only members,
the ANA became a powerful nationalist
pro-Federation organisation.
Australian-born Europeans
outnumbered immigrants for the first time during the 1880s,
and they wanted to keep it that way.
The ANA’s champion in the Victorian parliament,
Alfred Deakin, warned of:
‘The invasion of this country by Chinamen.
The unity of Australia is nothing
if it does not imply a united race.’
The link between Federation
and the single discriminatory immigration policy it offered,
was reinforced by ‘The Bulletin’,
the popular magazine that promoted
an independent white Australia.
Although Australia had one of the most
urbanised populations on earth,
‘The Bulletin’ championed the poetry
of Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson,
who, along with artists like Tom Roberts,
encouraged a pro-Federation nationalism
that embraced the self-sufficient, and white,
bushman as its icon.
Enter New South Wales Premier Sir Henry Parkes.
The scene —
lunch with New South Wales governor, Lord Carrington,
aka Champagne Charlie.
‘Britain finds it difficult to deal
with so many colonial governments.’
‘I could confederate these colonies in 12 months.’
‘Then why don’t you do it?’
Parkes was up for Carrington’s dare.
At Tenterfield, Parkes called for ‘one great federal army’
to protect Australia,
and a single-width railway track to transport the troops.
This demanded an Australian nation,
with Parkes proposing a convention
of colonial parliamentary representatives
to devise its constitution.
The 1891 National Australasian Convention
endorsed the foundation of a new nation,
the Commonwealth of Australia,
but the 1890s depression halted progress.
An 1893 meeting of federalists at Corowa
proposed giving the people, not just politicians,
a voice in Federation.
Voters would elect representatives to a convention
that would produce a constitution,
which would go back to the voters
for approval in a referendum.
Parkes passed the Federation baton
to New South Wales politician Edmund Barton,
known as Toby Tosspot for his heavy drinking.
Barton and Deakin played prominent roles
in the 1897–98 convention.
The constitution developed there,
took the accountability of the government
to parliament from the British;
the power of the courts to declare laws
unconstitutional from the Americans;
referendum provisions from the Swiss;
and other bits and pieces from Canada
and the Australian colonies.
This was a Frankenstein constitution,
but it reflected the fact
that people from across the European world
called Australia home.
The voters of all states, bar Western Australia,
gave Federation the green light in 1899.
Western Australia’s late sign-on in 1900
explains why it’s the only state
not mentioned in the preamble to the Constitution.
With Britain’s approval given,
Australia was born on the 1st of January 1901,
a new nation for a new century,
with Barton Prime Minister and Deakin Attorney-General.
Sure, ‘The Bulletin’ kept its
‘Australia for the white man’ slogan until 1960;
Britain could overrule state laws
and High Court decisions until 1986;
and the Melbourne to Adelaide rail line
didn’t adopt a standard-width track until 1995.
But as those who led the push for Federation knew,
sometimes change takes time.