The Federation Movement

In some respects the word 'movement' seems an exaggeration. There were hints of an emerging Australian identity, but this was largely an expression of how the Australian colonials differed from other Britons, rather than a conviction that Australians were something other than Britons.

Each of the colonies had grown in relative isolation and the proposed Federation would be more a marriage of convenience than a mutual admiration society.

The functions of the new federal government, it was planned, would be severely limited because it was only required to solve a handful of existing problems - and even then, the states were not fully agreed on how those problems should be tackled:

• Make sure the Germans don't invade Australia
• Make sure non-white labour doesn't stop other workers receiving a living wage
• Remove the tariffs that complicated trade between the states.

In every other respect it was, theoretically, business as usual for the States. 
The states continued following and developing different policies relating to the welfare of Aboriginals. 


It's unlikely Aboriginals might have suffered less over the next 80 years if the federal government had been given the power to do anything differently, but Aboriginals were disadvantaged in so far as state responsibility stopped at each relevant border. In some cases, two states would refuse to do anything because they insisted a group of Aboriginals was the other state's problem.