Forming Australia
• The process of joining the six colonies
together took nearly 60 years of planning
before it happened.
Imagine:
Somerset + All Saints + Kings joining into one
larger school. Consider the Advantages &
Disadvantages.
Deciding about Federation
• The Referendum
A national vote was held (twice) to
determine if Australia’s colonies would
agree to give up their powers to form
Australia.
(see the results in our text P. 276)
Why would these colonies choose
to join into one country?????
• The advantages of Federating were
• 1. Free trade
• 2. Defense
• 3. Unified World voice.
Was it an easy process ?
There were plenty of divisions within the colonies.
Australia almost did not happen.
• W.A. Qld. & NZ were concerned about the
power of the bigger states/colonies
so….state powers had to be protected.
• The nature of relations with Britain (& the
Queen) was very important to many people.
Agreeing on how to run Australia
• A set of clear rules about who had what
power had to be decided. This was set
out in the “constitution”.
The Constitution contained may
compromises to entice the different
colonies to join into the Australian
federation.
The Constitution
Broad areas of the Constitution:
• British power over Australia
• Power division between the states.
• Who creates the Laws
• How power is checked and balanced.
• Who has exactly what power
• How the constitution could be changed.