The process of federation in Australia

The process of federation took a long time. It was not until the 1880s that a movement towards federation really began. Before this period of time, the colonies were separated by a belief that federation wouldn't do much good. Each colony was proud of their own independence. Some colonies, such as South Australia, did not want to join other colonies that had convict pasts. The smaller colonies, such as Tasmania, feared that they would be …

…they had to look after the other colonies or be swallowed by the other colonies and had a lot to lose. For example, the New South Wales colony, one of the largest, believed that they had the possibility of not retaining the status of a white colony, and the losses of free trade, penny postage, mineral wealth, pastoral wealth and the one man one vote policy. All these contributed to the date when federation occurred.