• About Us
• For Schools
• Research And Seminar Papers
• Exhibitions Online
  • Governors And Premiers
  • The Australian Honours System
  • Proclamation Day
  • Interactive Referendum
  • Changing Constitutions
  • A Nation at Last
    • A Nation at Last
    • The 1891 National Australia Australiasian Convention
    • Sir Henery Parkes. The Father of Federation?
    • Taking Federation to the People
    • The Australasian Federal Convention 1897/1898
    • The Federal Constitutional Referendums 1898, 1899 and 1900
    • The Tally Board
    • Western Australia Says 'Yes'
    • Off to London to See the Queen
    • Australians Celebrate the Commonwealth
  • Our Constitution
  • A Vote of Her Own
• Civic Educators Network
• Games
• 175th Anniversary
• Cabinet Records

A Nation At Last

The Bulletin, 18 April 1891

In the 1890s Parkes was often depicted as 'The Father of Federation'. What was his contribution to the federal cause?

Parkes convinced his fellow Premiers and politicians to take federation seriously at the Melbourne Conference of 1890. But his legacy to the federal movement was not in the fine detail of the Constitution. Parkes presented a vision of a united Australia and left legal definitions to others.

Parkes, however, did have a lasting effect on the way in which Australians refer to their national government. The draft constitution of 1891 called the new nation 'The Commonwealth of Australia'. The title was suggested by Parkes. Perhaps, for that alone, Parkes deserves to be remembered as the 'Father' of the Commonwealth.

Parkes died in 1896. He did not live to be the first Prime Minister of Australia, a position many thought lay at the heart of his interest in federation.