From March 2 to March 12, 1891, representatives from the six self governing Australian colonies and New Zealand gathered in Sydney for the Australasian Federation Conference, a pivotal event in the movement towards the creation of the Commonwealth of Australia. Convened by New South Wales Premier Sir Henry Parkes, often called the “Father of Federation,” the conference aimed to turn the long-discussed idea of uniting the colonies into a concrete political plan.
The conference brought together leading colonial figures, including Parkes himself, Samuel Griffith of Queensland, Charles Kingston of South Australia, and Andrew Inglis Clark of Tasmania. Over ten days, these delegates debated the practical and philosophical foundations of a federal system that could balance the interests of the larger and smaller colonies. Defence, intercolonial trade, and the need for a unified approach to national policy were central themes.
Under the leadership of Griffith and with significant input from Clark, the conference produced a draft constitution for a “Commonwealth of Australia.” The document outlined a federal parliament consisting of a House of Representatives and a Senate, a federal judiciary, and a system of responsible government similar to that of Britain. While this draft was not immediately adopted, economic challenges and political hesitancy in several colonies stalled progress and it became the cornerstone for later constitutional discussions.
The 1891 conference marked the first serious attempt to transform the idea of federation into a workable political structure. Although nearly a decade would pass before federation became a reality in 1901, the conference’s deliberations laid the intellectual and legal groundwork for the nation’s founding document. In many ways, it was here, in the debating halls of Sydney in 1891, that the framework of modern Australia first began to take shape.