Australia Yearbook - 2001

54 Year Book Australia 2001
New Guinea, but this was disallowed by the
British Government. When Germany annexed a
portion of New Guinea in December 1884, this
highlighted Australia’s lack of independence.
In 1880 Parkes had raised the possibility of
creating a federal council of the colonies
“to accustom the public mind to federal ideas”,
but nothing was done. The concerns over
defence gave this added point, and in 1885 the
Federal Council of Australasia was established to
deal with various matters, including maritime
defence and relations with the Pacific islands.
The Federal Council met every two years from
1886 to 1899, yet achieved little. It had no
money, no executive power, limited legislative
power, and no way of ensuring that all colonies
would abide by its decisions. New South Wales
never joined the Council and South Australia
was a member only during 1889–90. Clearly, the
Federal Council of Australasia was, in a
politician’s words, “a contemptible phantom”.
Despite a gradual movement towards some type
of national union, the colonies still maintained a
jealous independence, symbolised by their
separate flags. As part of this separate status,
each colony maintained its own militia force,
but these were small and hardly likely to act as a
deterrent to an outside threat. In 1889 a
UK-commissioned report recommended the
establishment of an Australian defence force
capable of acting in unison. For this to be
achieved, defence force organisation and
legislation needed to be uniform. During a visit
to Tenterfield (NSW) later in 1889, Sir Henry
Parkes referred to this report when he made a
ringing call for “a great national Government for
all Australia”. The Tenterfield Address, as it
became known, was said to have played a part
in encouraging a general move towards
Australian federation.
Immigration and defence were not the only
issues bothering the Australian colonies. Since
the 1850s, trade and movement between the
colonies were restricted by the existence of tariff
barriers. The train trip between Sydney and
Melbourne, for example, was held up by the
need for passengers’ luggage to be checked by
customs officers at Albury. According to the
American writer Mark Twain, the colonies’ tariff
system was “the most baffling and
unaccountable marvel that Australasia can
show”. Victorian Premier James Service warned
that this problem was the “lion in the way” of
final federation.
Progress in the 1890s
By 1890, there was enough interest in
federation for the Premiers of NSW and Victoria
to call an intercolonial meeting to discuss the
issue. Delegates from all colonies, plus New
Zealand, met in Melbourne to attend the
Australasian Federation Conference. The
Conference agreed that the time was right for
federation, and it called for the creation of a
national convention, which should be
“empowered to consider and report upon an
adequate scheme for a Federal Constitution”.
The 1891 Federation Convention
The 1891 Federation Convention met in Sydney
to write a constitution. There were delegates
from each colony, plus New Zealand, all chosen
by their parliaments. A draft constitution written
by a Tasmanian delegate, Andrew Inglis Clark,
was a useful starting point for the delegates, and
after five weeks work a constitution draft was
produced. The driving force behind the work of
the Convention was the chair of the Drafting
Committee, Sir Samuel Griffith of Queensland,
and the final draft was said to have been marked
by Griffith’s “terse, clear style and force of
expression”. The main features of the draft were
the creation of a federal system, a bicameral
parliament, the upper house to be named the
‘Senate’, and of a superior court with power to
declare acts of the Parliament
unconstitutional—all of which were included in
the final Australian Constitution.
The 1891 draft constitution was not
implemented, due largely to opposition in New
South Wales, but it later served as the starting
point for the Convention of 1897–98.
Popular sentiment for federation
The federation push stalled after New South
Wales’ refusal to deal with the draft constitution.
Over the next few years activity by ordinary
Australians began to emerge, seeking to push
the politicians back into action. Many
‘federation leagues’ were formed to influence
public opinion, and the first leagues were
formed along the New South Wales–Victoria
border, where the tariff problem was felt
particularly keenly. In Victoria, the Australian
Natives’ Association friendly society was
important in publicising the federation cause.
In 1893 some border leagues organised a
federation conference at Corowa (NSW) which
supported a call for a new federation
convention to be held with direct election of
delegates and ratification of any final