The Corowa Conference was a meeting of Federationists, held in 1893 in the

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

border town of Corowa, which debated the proposed federation of Australian colonies. Although patchily attended and without any immediate consequence, the 'road map' to Federation devised at the Conference was ultimately highly influential.

Background

In 1892

Edmund Barton Sir Edmund "Toby" Barton (18 January 18497 January 1920) was an Australian politician, barrister and jurist who served as the first prime minister of Australia from 1901 to 1903. He held office as the leader of the Protectionist Party, before ...

, an advocate of Federation and Australia's first

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

, visited Corowa to urge support of the draft constitution produced by the National Federal Convention of 1891, then before the New South Wales Parliament. The

Australian Natives' Association The Australian Natives' Association (ANA) was a mutual society founded in Melbourne, Australia in April 1871. It was founded by and for the benefit of White native-born Australians, and membership was restricted to that group. The Association's ...

played a large part in Federation, and local support for federation was evident in the fact that Corowa was the location of the first Australian Natives' Association branch in New South Wales. Barton favoured the creation Federation leagues in such border districts, and the first of these were founded in Corowa and Albury. The idea was then picked up in other

Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray; Ngarrindjeri language, Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta language, Yorta Yorta: ''Dhungala'' or ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is List of rivers of Australia, Aust ...

towns. They eventually all banded together and formed the Border Federation League. Several months later William Drummond of the Berrigan 'everyone is equal' Drive branch of the Federation League proposed the idea of a conference to revive flagging interest in Federation. Corowa Federation Place's lup seep es Group, Corowa, NSW Profile

Proceedings

The Conference took place over 31 July to 1 August. Both the Premier and Opposition Leader of Victoria attended, but neither the Premier or the Opposition leader of New South Wales were present. Both

Henry Parkes Sir Henry Parkes, (27 May 1815 – 27 April 1896) was a colonial Australian politician and the longest-serving non-consecutive Premier of New South Wales, premier of the Colony of New South Wales, the present-day state of New South Wales in ...

and Edmund Barton were also absent. There was evidently some ill-feeling between the Conference and Barton, and the Conference formally declined to express thanks to Barton's Australasian Federation League. William Coleman,''Their Fiery Cross of Union. A Retelling of the Creation of the Australian Federation, 1889-1914'', Connor Court, Queensland, 2021, p.86. The two key figures in the Conference proved to be Sir John Quick and Robert Garran, who devised, on-the-spot, a scheme to convene an Australia-wide convention, composed of directly elected delegates, tasked to draft a federal constitution, which would then be put to voters by referendum. Their scheme was initially given little attention, and Barton's Australasian Federation League publicly rejected it. But it was later to prove extremely influential, and was adopted in 1897-8, with barely any modification, by all six colonies.

Footnotes

{{reflist History of Australia (1851–1900) Riverina 1893 in Australia