2. Broken Nation Before 1901 Australia did not exist as a nation. It was a collection of six British colonies: New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania as well as Western Australia which was the last colony to join the federation.
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4. Henry Parkes Federating goes a long way back, Henry Parkes (Premier of NSW) is often called the 'Father of Federation' his role was the long-time agitator for the cause- he convinced the other premiers to discuss federation.
5. Some concerns The smaller colonies where worried that the larger ones would have more power in federal parliament and so did not completely agree with the idea. They solved that problem by making sure each state always has the same number of representatives. During the 1880’s and 1890’s the idea of federating became more popular, for people started thinking they would be a stronger nation if they stood together.
6. The constitution The Constitution had to be agreed to by the British Parliament before federation could proceed. A delegation (Assignment) travelled to London to present the Constitution to the British Parliament.
7. Commonwealth The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act was passed by the British Parliament in July 1900. This allowed the six Australian colonies to become states of Australia and the Parliament of Australia was formed.
8. ‘One people, one flag, one destiny.’ On 1 January 1901 at a ceremony held in Centennial-General in Sydney the Commonwealth of Australia was declared. The Australians then welcomed nationhood, up to 500 000 people joined the federation parade. This demonstrated that Australians were ready to unite under the slogan ‘one people, one flag, one destiny.’
9. Melbourne or Sydney? The Capital city was placed in-between Melbourne and Sydney, because they both wanted to be the nation’s capital.
