Introduction to Federation

One hundred years ago, six different colonies (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia & Western Australia) joined together to form the new nation of Australia. There were many arguments about whether this was a good idea or not.

The reasons against Federation included:

· The rich colonies not wanting to pay for the poor colonies things all the time

· The little colonies not wanting to be bossed around by the big ones

· Whether Melbourne or Sydney should be the capital of Australia

The reasons for Federation included:

· Better protection against invasion by joining all the little armies together

· Better control over the number of new people coming to Australia

· Being able to move products between the colonies without paying special taxes called tariffs

· Australia already had a cricket team and had won gold medals at the Olympic Games and it wasn't even a proper country yet.

The colonies voted at different times but the votes came back with a YES to federate. Today we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first meeting of the new government in Melbourne.

One continent, one nation for one hundred years is a great achievement.

Happy Birthday Australia

The Federation Rap

We're Australia and we're here to stay

We're not gonna leave and go another way.

Our people come from far and wide

To come to Australia, the land of pride.

We love to watch our cricket team

Cause when we play we're mighty mean.

We started off in England, the pommy land

And we ended up in this southern land.

The Chinese came and many more

They all rocked up and knocked on our door.

We had so many problems it wasn't funny

But in the end we had lots of money

In years gone by historians say

We had to federate - but some said, "NO WAY!"

The population increased and so did our pride

So now we stand side by side.

We have a central government

And capital too

Our Australian animal is a kangaroo

Women couldn't vote but now they can

And now they have rights - the same as a man

Taxes were steep and weren't consistent

A federated army was nonexistent!

We got our act together and worked as one

And now we have a national army - it's the one!

We are Australian and we should be one

So we're gonna celebrate our federation

We're gonna have fun and remember our past

It seems like time went really fast

When we federated they said it was great

We became Aussies - "G'day mate!"

YO Australia GO!

Written by Grade 6 Romey 2001