The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, and Western Australia agreed to unite and form the Commonwealth of Australia, establishing a system of federalism in Australia.
George Reid
George Reid was born in Scotland on 18th August in 1845. As a child he moved to Australia and ended up joining Australian politics. He became a member of the NSW parliament in 1880, but really didn’t show interest in the federation movement until the md 1890s.
It was in 1894 when George Reid was elected as premier of NSW that he got involved with the federation movement. He became a member of the Australasian Federation League and attended many conferences and conventions on federation.
Reid noticed that the early versions of the Constitution disadvantaged NSW. Therefore, he decided to work against the cause of federation in
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He wanted them to remember this when voting.
The failure of the referendum allowed Reid to make further changes to the Constitution so that it would be more favourable for New South Wales. For example, he made the other premiers and people in the federation movement agree that the nation's capital would be in his state. This is why the Australian Capital Territory, where Canberra is situated, sits within New South Wales' borders.
Satisfied with the new version of the Constitution, Reid campaigned for federation in the lead up to the 1899 New South Wales referendum which succeeded. He was elected to the federal parliament at the nation's first elections in 1901 and became Australia's fourth prime minister. Reid returned to Britain in 1908 and became a member of the British parliament in 1916, but died two years later in England. He died on 12th September 1918 at 73 years of