Scientists were among the first to think of Australia as one united place. The first Intercolonial conference on astronomy and meteorology was held in the Sydney Observatory in November 1879. The scientists soon developed a standardised system for meteorological recording, which led to the issuing of continental weather forecasts and charts. By 1895 an agreement was reached between the colonies to divide the continent into standard time zones.
It was this cooperative approach by scientists that led to astronomy and meteorology being specifically defined in the Commonwealth constitution as federal responsibilities. The Sydney Observatory with its special scientific equipment and functions shows the growing importance of science to colonial development.
Other intercolonial conferences helped to establish a federal way of thinking. The Colonial Secretary’s Building in Sydney (now known as the Chief Secretary’s Building) was the site of an Intercolonial Military Conference early in 1896, and an Intercolonial Railway Conference in 1898.
Two noteworthy characteristics of this grand building stand out to today’s historian of the Federation movement. It is located in Sydney’s government precinct and contains a hierarchical organization of offices and functions. This demonstrates the political importance of the intercolonial conferences to the administrative and political male elites of the time.
In 1883 another intercolonial convention was held at the Colonial Secretary’s Building that was particularly important. Its purpose was to discuss increasing German and French colonialism in the Pacific islands, but it had a critical role in the journey to Federation. The key outcome of this convention was the establishment of the Federal Council of Australasia. Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, Western Australia and Fiji all sent representatives. New South Wales, New Zealand and South Australia did not join this precursor to a federal government. This was an important organization because it was here that politicians and administrators gained experience in how to run a federal parliament.
The Tenterfield School of Arts was the scene for the now famous ‘Tenterfield Oration’ by Sir Henry Parkes in October 1889. Parkes stopped overnight in Tenterfield on his return from a meeting to discuss Federation in Brisbane, and the townsfolk provided a banquet in his honour.
Parkes’ after dinner speech drew upon the recent Edwards Report on colonial defences, which recommended the immediate unification of the colonial defence forces under a single ‘federal’ command, the establishment of a federal military college, and the standardisation of colonial railway gauges.
Parkes argued that “what the Americans had done by the War of Independence, the Australians could bring about in peace without breaking the ties that held them to the mother country”. The oration was fully reported in the Sydney Morning Herald and widely acclaimed in New South Wales, and encouraged Parkes to renew his efforts to restart the Federation movement.
| Federation Places on the State Heritage Register Chief Secretary’s Building
Sydney Observatory
Tenterfield School of Arts
Corowa Courthouse
|
 |
Federation Places on the State Heritage Register
Centennial Park
NH Quarantine Station
Bare Island Fort
Katoomba PO |
| The French Arch built in Pitt Street, Sydney, for the Federal Inauguration Parade 1901.
Photograph courtesy of the National Library of Australia |
The School of Arts building, with its central hall and educational functions, shows the formal manner in which public speeches were presented to colonial audiences. As the country location of this building demonstrates, geographical isolation was no barrier to the spread of the federalist message.
By 1893 the federal movement had reached an impasse at the parliamentary level. This led the Federation Leagues in the Murray River valley to organise a conference at the border town of Corowa. Seventy-two delegates met on the 1st August in the Corowa Courthouse and adopted what became known as the ‘Corowa Plan’.
The Corowa Plan involved electing delegates to a convention that would draft a constitution. This would then be submitted to a referendum for acceptance in each colony. By this means it would be the people’s (which at this time meant the men’s) representatives who would write the new constitution, and it would be the people who would approve or reject their great work. It was this plan which successfully led to the creation of the Commonwealth.
It is interesting to examine the Corowa Courthouse as a record of Federation. The building normally functioned as a site for dispensing public justice beneath the Royal coat of arms. At the time of the meeting it was able to accommodate the large number of popular delegates and, significantly, it was located on a colonial border. These characteristics demonstrate the loyalist, democratic and federalist ideals that motivated the popular Corowa Plan.
Following the Federation referenda of 1898, 1899 and 1900 and the passing of an Act of the Imperial Parliament in London, the scene was set for the inauguration of the Commonwealth.
On the first day of the 20th century a procession wound its way through the streets of Sydney and into Centennial Park. Formerly a part of Sydney Common, the park had been proclaimed in 1888 to mark the centenary of British colonisation in New South Wales. In the natural amphitheatre now named ‘Federation Valley’ a pavilion had been built, and there Lord Hopetoun, the first Governor General, was sworn in along with the first prime minister Edmund Barton and the first ministry of eight men. The official papers were all signed using the same pen, inkstand and table used by Queen Victoria to give her assent to the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act in 1900. This table was used again during this year’s ceremony.
 |
The new Commonwealth government assumed control of the former colonial defences in 1901, including Bare Island Fort in Botany Bay. A common approach to defence was an important element in Federation. The island continent was popularly thought to be coveted by the Russians, French, Germans or Japanese during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Photograph by NSW Heritage Office |
Centennial Park with its fertile green expanses in Australia’s oldest city is an important symbol of the federation story. The place names used in the urban parkland and its function as a site for important state ceremonies demonstrate the park’s significance as a birthplace of the nation.
One of the first pieces of legislation passed by the new federal parliament in 1901 was the Immigration Restriction Act. Its clear intent was to exclude ‘coloured’ migration from Australia and to deport Pacific Island labourers from the sugar districts.
North Head Quarantine Station gives us a physical expression of the “White Australia Policy”. The Station was divided into 1st, 2nd and 3rd class accommodation, reflecting the segregated nature of passenger shipping, with a separate ‘Asiatic’ area from 1902. Despite the poor condition of the Asiatic section, it was described in 1933 as suitable because Asians could “…be herded together without complaint”.
The Quarantine Station demonstrates in its layout and specialised buildings the class and racial segregation of the White Australia years. It shows the prevalent ideologies linking race and purity and the attempts to control diseases that led to the formation in 1921 of the Commonwealth Department of Health.
Another function assumed by the new Commonwealth on the 1st March 1901 was control of postal and telegraphic services. When the Commonwealth assumed direct control of post offices in New South Wales it used Katoomba Post Office, built in 1910 in a Georgian revival style, as the model for all new post offices in the state up to 1930. Its role as a model post office demonstrates the importance of the Commonwealth in providing accessible public communications across Australia in readily identifiable ‘national’ buildings.
From this brief selection of places on the State Heritage Register we can see that the story of Federation can be read in the bricks-and mortar “documents” that make up our cultural environments. But it is necessary to place these heritage items in a context such as Federation to understand their meanings. By using historical themes such as Federation, the stories that link heritage items and provide a historical context can be written, read and appreciated.
| 1846 'Federal' scheme suggested >> 1885 Federal Council formed >> 1889 Parkes' Tenterfield speech >> 1893 Corowa conference >> 1896 Bathurst People's convention >> 1901 Federation |
