before and during Federation in Australia

Federation of Australia arrived after deliberation, debate,  consultation & referenda, as this report by The Federation of Australia - Parliamentary Education Office examined.

For millennia Aboriginals & Torres Strait Islanders lived & practiced traditional cultures and languages. Then from the late 1700s, British colonies started. By late 1800s, 6 colonies had their own parliaments but were still subject to the British Parliament’s law-making. The colonies were separate, each with its own government and laws, separate defence force and separate tariffs collections on goods crossing borders. A belief grew that a National Government had to deal with defence, immigration & trade.

NSW Premier Sir Henry Parkes 1889, Father of Federation

Trip Advisor

Tariffs provided colonial governments with revenue, but increasing the cost of goods made it hard for manufacturers outside a colony to compete with locals. Travelling between colonies was difficult. The Melb-Sydney train was delayed at the border in Albury while customs officials searched passengers' luggage. Free traders argued that ending tariffs & having a single market would improve each colony.

The Australian colonies built their railways independently, choosing different track gauges. When trains reached a colonial border, passengers disembarked in mid-journey, carried luggage and boarded other trains. Worse still, cargo & livestock were unloaded from one train and reloaded to another, causing severe delays and high labour costs. [In Oct 1921 a royal commission recommended uniform gauges.]

Members of Australasian Federation Conference, 1890, 

Nat Library of Australia

Pre-Federation, colonies had little defence. Each one had a militia with a small permanent force, but they all relied on the British navy to patrol the coastline. People feared being attacked from other nations with larger military forces, so one big defence force might protect Australia better.

In late C19th, colonists opposed non British immigrants. They feared cheap non-white labour would compete with colonists for jobs, lower wages & living standards. The fears stemmed from anti-Chinese sentiment in the 1850s goldfields & resentment to Pacific Islanders in Qld's sugar industry. A national government could control immigration better than colonies. Colonists shared a common language, culture and heritage, and increasingly began to identify as Australian, not British. By the 1890s, 3/4 of civilians were Australian-born so sporting teams represented Australia; contemporary songs celebrated national pride

Convinced the colonies would be stronger if they united, NSW Premier Sir Henry Parkes made rousing speeches in 1889, calling for 1 national government! His call lobbied his fellow premiers to back Federation. In Feb 1890 delegates from each colonial parliament AND New Zealand Parliament met at the Australasian Federation Conference in Melbourne. The conference agreed that the Australian colonies could have an early union under the crown, and a national convention could draft a Commonwealth Constitution. The 1st National Australasian Convention in Sydney in early 1891 had delegates from each colony & from New Zealand. During the 5 week convention Edmund Barton, Australia’s 1st Prime Minister, co-planned a draft constitution.

Qld Premier Sir S Griffith drafted the final constitution, partially inspired by the U.S federal model which was also bringing together self-governing colonies as a nation. Under our draft constitution the colonies would unite as separate states in the Common-wealth, with power shared between a National Parliament and State Parliaments.

Key features of the draft constitution: 

1.Federal Parliament would comprise the monarch via Gov-Gen, Senate and House of Representatives. 

2.Federal Parliament would be responsible for areas affecting the nation eg trade, defence, immigration, telegraph/post & marriage/divorce. 

3.Power to make and manage federal law was divided between Parliament (make laws), Executive (implement them) and Judiciary (interpret them).

Delegates took the draft constitution back to their parliaments. Faced with a monetary decline, Parliaments lost enthusiasm for Federation, esp after hero Henry Parkes retired. While the colonial parliaments put the issue of Federation backwards, groups like the Australian Federation League in NSW pushed for Federation. In 1893 a people's conference in Corowa NSW agreed to hold a citizens’ referendum to approve the draft.

Premiers' Conference 1895 in Hobart, the colonies mostly agreed to the proposal. Federation might mean losing its Pacific Islander labour force, Qld did not participate, nor did New Zealand. In 1896 Bathurst Federation League, frustrated by the colonial parliaments’ inaction, held a 2nd people's conference where 150+ delegates wanted a new convention. In 1896 elections were held in NSW, Vic, Sth Aus & Tasmania. The 2nd National Australasian Convention met 3 times during 1897-8, starting with the 1891 draft constitution.

In Mar 1898 they agreed to the draft constitution so citizens of the 6 colonies were asked to approve the constitution in referenda. In June 1898 the referenda meant Australia was the first nation to take a proposed constitution to the people for approval. Federal Leagues, clubs & societies were formed in the 1890s to advocate avidly for Federation, and press reports were well read and built popular support.

Anti-Federation groups argued Federation would weaken the colonial parliaments and interstate free trade would lead to lower wages and job loss. The referendum was passed in Victoria, Sth Australia and Tasmania. Although a majority of voters in NSW voted yes in the referendum, it did not attract the 80,000 yes-votes set by the NSW colonial parliament as the required minimum. Qld & W. Australia, concerned Federation would give NSW & Victoria an advantage over the less powerful states, did not hold referenda.

In Jan 1899 the Premiers met to find how to bring about Federation, although the W.A Premier did not attend. To win the support of NSW & Qld colonial parliaments, the Premiers made some further changes to the draft constitution. NB the decision to establish the Australian National Capital in NSW 160+ km from Sydney. In Ap-July 1899 referenda were again held in Victoria, NSW, Sth Australia & Tasmania, although W Australia still stayed away. All 4 colonies agreed to the proposed constitution. In Sept Qld agreed to the constitution by a narrow margin, 54+%. The Brisbane Courier welcomed the result and urged all Qld people to unite.

The constitution needed passing by the British Parliament before Federation could proceed. In Mar 1900 a delegation, with a delegate from each of the 6 colonies, travelled to London to present the con-stitition to Parliament. Common-wealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 passed in London in July 1900; Queen Victoria signed the Act. 3 weeks after the Australian Constitution became law in Britain, a referendum was finally held in W Aus. Knowing the other colonies were sorted, W Australian colonial parliament stopped opposing Federation & most W Australian voters wanted it.

 

Lord Hopetoun being sworn in as Australia’s Gov-Gen, 

Sydney, 1 Jan 1901, National Library Australia

The Australian Commonwealth was declared on 1st Jan 1901 in Sydney’s Centennial Park where 1st Gov-Gen Lord Hopetoun was sworn in. And Australia's 1st Prime Minister, Edmund Barton and Federal Ministers took the oath of office. 500,000 people lined the roads as the marchers travelled from to Centennial Park before c100,000 spectators. Across Australia people celebrated with parades, school pageants, fire-works, sports & lectures. Federation arches decorated the main streets. The 6 British colonies were now states.

Sth & W Australian women were enfranchised, but other women were blocked. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were totally excluded. Women in other states continued with their own Federal Leagues, trying to win the vote in the new nation. Elections for the new Federal Parliament were held in late Mar 1901, some of the newly elected parliamentarians having been in colonial parliaments.

The 1st Parliament opened in May 1901 by the Duke of Cornwall & York/later King George V. A lavish ceremony was held in Melbourne’s Exhibition Building and was attended by 12,000+ guests. Parliam-entarians were sworn in by the Gov-Gen and then went by carriage to Victoria's Parliament House. The Senate then met in the Legislative Council, and the House of Representatives met in the Legislative Assembly. Victoria’s Parliament House was the temporary home of Federal Parliament so Victorian Parliament met in Exhibition Building until 1927, when the new Federal Parliament House opened in Canberra.

Centennial Park Sydney, swearing-in ceremony of Australia's 1st government 

1/1/1901, Wiki

Celebrating the opening of the 1st Parliament, 

Exhibition Building Melbourne 9/5/1901

National Library Australia.

Did Hals & Rembrandt copy the other's art?

Since 1990 when I started my art history degree, of all the paintings in the Western World, my absolute favourites have been Dutch works painted in the C17th. Instead of painting saints and monarchs, Dutch artists then preferred ordinary but dignified people: milkmaids, merchants, inn-keepers and loving families with children. Because the new Dutch Republic was a wealthy, merchant driven society rather than a Catholic monarchy, art moved out of huge cathedrals and into smaller middle-class homes. This led to detailed genres like landscapes, seascapes and cozy domestic interiors. Even the Dutch still-lives with skilled glassware & porcelain reminded viewers of the fleeting nature of life, mixing tactile precision, philosophical mood and the simple things in life in small, finely crafted paintings (See Art of the Everyday: Realism in 17th-Century Dutch Genre Painting). Idealised splendour was absent, thankfully.

Frans Hals (c1583-1666) was one of the most famous and innovative painters of the C17th. His brushstrokes and compositions made his work unique and have been widely emulated. He created c220 works, including 175 individual portraits, and other militias and regents. The Dutch C17th artist Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-69) is world-famous for his emotionally charged and dramatic paintings, characterised by his brushstrokes, harsh light & dark contrasts. He mainly painted historical scenes & portraits, but also some land-scapes and still lifes - 300 paintings incl c100 self-portraits.

Portrait of a man by Frans Hals, c1635

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem is inviting locals and visitors to see the 2 artists in the Hals-Rembrandt Exhibition (Nov 2026-28th Feb 2027). 19 portraits are displayed in themed combinations side by side; viewers can assess how the 2 artists worked in different ways and achieved different results on canvas. This was true even though both artists were famed for their loose brush style and their life-like portraits. This show is attracting large crowds, so online reservation is highly recommended.

The exhibition was made possible thanks to a great loan of 5 paintings from Rijksmuseum. A highlight was the arrival of Rembrandt’s Syndics of the Drapers' Guild (1662), which shares similarities to Hals’ Portraits of the City Magistrates. Rembrandt’s portrait of Haesje Jacobsdr van Cleyburg (1634) hangs along-side Hals’s stately Portrait of Cornelia Voogt (1631) from Frans Hals Museum’s own collection. Rembrandt’s Johannes Wtenbogaert (1633) is hung besides Hals’ Portrait of a Man (c1635) from the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, which is being restored especially for the exhibition.

Rembrandt, Portrait of Johannes Wtenbogaert, 1633

Rijksmuseum

Also from the Boijmans Museum is Rembrandt’s Titus at a Lectern (1655), displayed alongside two paintings of Fishermen’s Children from the collections of Phoebus Foundation and Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp. The Mauritshuis in The Hague is lending Rembrandt’s The Laughing Man (c1629-30), displayed alongside Hals’ Laughing Boy with a Flute (c1630) from the German State Palaces in Schwerin. And see the painting Children Playing Music (c1628) by Hals, on display alongside Rembrandt’s The Music Party (1626). This early work is on a loan from the Rijksmuseum and on display at Museum De Lakenhal. The Six Collection is lending out Rembrandt’s The Girl in a Picture Frame from 1641.

The paintings are shown to visitors in an intimate setting, encouraging viewers to examine them at their leisure and to see more. The viewer is invited to look for the similarities and differences between the works eg in the posture, facial expressions and clothing of the subjects. They range from serious to laughing out loud, from understated to joyous. By looking at them in this way, the art-lover can discover more about the technical skill and emotional power of these masterpieces, through which Hals & Remb-randt achieved fame. The Hals Museum notes the main differences; Hals’ fast, snapshot-like, confident brushwork compares with Rembrandt’s deep, exploratory, meticulous layering.

The two artists didn’t live near each other. So from visual comparisons between paintings, Paul Crenshaw noted that Rembrandt & Hals certainly visited the Arundel collection and were most influenced by many Hans Holbein portraits in the collection. Connections are drawn to Rembrandt’s 1652 Large Self-Portrait in Vienna and to Hals’s likely pendant portraits of a woman in the Frick Collection.

Read and thanks to Frans Hals Museum presents its first exhibition bringing together Frans Hals and Rembrandt van Rijn. And thanks to Rembrandt and Hals Visit the Arundel Collection, in Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art.

German publisher Schocken; Russian architect J Berlin

Joseph Berlin (1877-1952) was born in Mogilev Russia/now Belarus. He studied at St Pet­ersburg Academy of Art graduating in 1911, winning sev­eral architectural compet­itions. Berlin then worked in St Pet­er­s­burg, designing 12+ build­ings for various local councils and banks before migrat­ing to British-ruled Palestine with his family in 1921

Once settled, he got work as Chief Architect in the Public Works Dept of the important trade union, the Histadrut. In his 3 years there, he designed a number of build­ings in Tel-Aviv including the Electric Corporation on HaHashmal St, a text­ile fact­ory and a number of private houses eg Sh­ap­ira House in Bialik St which later became a synagogue. In total Berlin designed 100+ buildings around the country, 83 in Tel Aviv, many of them land­marks which still stand today.

Haaretz Tel Aviv, built 1932

architect Joseph Berlin

So why did Joseph Berlin agree to design printing works? Haaretz News­paper was founded in 1918, sponsored by the British military govern­ment in Palest­ine, making it the longest running news­paper currently in print in Isr­ael. Haaretz is considered the most in­fluential and re­sp­ect­ed daily newspaper, Israel's newspaper of record. In 1919, it was led by a group of Russian Labour Zionists and the literary section attract­ed leading Hebrew writers of the time.   

Architect Joseph Berlin

Until 1922 the paper was printed in Jerusalem, then it re­opened in Tel Aviv early 1923 under the editorship of Moshe Glick­son. Tel Aviv Council granted the paper financial support by paying in advance for future advertisements. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, it was seen as the most sophisticated of the country's dailies.

Apart from the news, Haar­etz publishes feature articles on social and environmental issues, book reviews, investig­ative reporting and pol­it­ical commentary. Its read­ership includes Israel's intelligentsia and members of its political and economic elites. Haar­etz readership has a higher-than-average education and income and most are Ashkenazim.

Salman Schocken (1877-1959) was a publisher and co-founder of the large Kaufhaus Schocken chain of department stores in Germany. His classiest shop was in St­uttgart, designed by famous architect Erich Mendelsohn in 1926. St­raight after the Nazis took over, Schocken left Ger­many and emig­rated to Palestine in 1934; the department stores he left in Germany were quickly ary­anised.

St­uttgart branch, Kaufhaus Schocken chain of German department stores.

Schocken founded Schocken Books, publishing books in German and Hebrew. And fortunately he bought Ha­ar­etz Printing Company in Dec 1937.  

Ha­ar­etz Printing Co, Tel Aviv

renovated in the 1990s

The original Haaretz building was designed in 1932 to the archit­ect­ural designs of Joseph Berlin and his son Zeev. 56 Mazeh St Tel Aviv was com­pletely a residential street at the time when the print works were built. In fact it was surp­rising that permission was granted for a noisy industrial unit that op­erated all night, printing the next day's edition. It was demolished in the early 1990s with only part of the fac­ade pre­ser­v­ed and integ­rated into the modernist building.

Commentators have compared the former print works to the early works of Bauhaus star Walter Gropius and those of Erich Mendel­sohn who designed the de la Warr pavilion in Sussex. It made sense. Berlin was trained in Russia but by the time he was building in Tel Aviv in the 1930s, his projects incorporated many elements of the Bauhaus style i.e few decorative additions, flat roofs, ribbon windows.

Ha'aretz Newspaper left the building years ago but the current owners have kept the original facade, maintaining it excellently. It has strong features, with wide steel framed glass, rounded bal­con­ies and balustrades, and a cantilevered roof. And note the glazed corner stairwell looking into the zigzag staircase, adding drama to the des­ign. Its squared-off corner contrasts with the curves of the rest of the balconies. Look through the door to a repro­duc­ed image of the building back in the 1930's. The only significant diff­erence is that the original image still bore the newspaper name on the facade.

Haaretz is still owned by the Schocken family, now the printing house is in Schocken St Sth Tel Aviv. The glass st­air­case and balcony with rail­ings are striking. The building used to have another structure in the back, which was demolished and replaced by a higher housing building.

In the era of their partnership, Joseph and Zeev Ber­lin des­igned several build­ings in T.A, including Braun-Rabinsky House (1932) cnr Rothschild Bld & Mazeh St. This residential build­ing was designed by the father-and-son team, its design ch­aracterised by straight, unadorned lines. It was designed as a 3-storeyed house with 2 flats on each floor, on either side of a vertical stair­s; this accentuated the corner and funct­ions as the building's axis of sym­metry. See the stairwell and the vertical thermometer window. Since then the pent­house was added to the building, setback from the main façade, while another extension was added at the rear.  

Braun-Rabinsky House, Tel Aviv, 1932

by Joseph and Zeev Berlin architects

Read 1. Baruch Ravid’s book: Josef Berlin, Architect: Between Little Tel Aviv and the White City (2005) and 2. Adrian Yekkes, Josef Berlin in Tel Aviv.

L. Capability Brown landscape gardens

Known as the Father of British Landscape Architecture, Lancelot Cap­ab­ility Brown (1716-83) started life as an estate worker's son. The Northum­b­erland lad trained as a gardener's boy at the local country house, Kirkharle Hall. By 1741 he had reached Stowe, a Bucking­hamshire estate where he became responsible for one of the loveliest landscape gardens in England. He stayed at Stowe for ten years and got married in the local church.

Croome sits in Brown's landscape.

Note the architectural reflections in the lake

Claude and Poussin’s view of the Roman Campagna inspired naturalistic garden design and Brown refused to create formal, symmetrical French Baroque gardens. Instead he designed naturalistic, picturesque spaces with undulating grasses, tree clumps, curving lakes and flowing rivers. He wanted to create landscapes like those the C18th Grand Tourists saw in Italy.

Naturalistic did not mean untouched. Capability Brown surveyed the land he had available to him and considered how to transform the English landscape with his designs. He did whatever needed to be done: moved entire hills, created vast lakes and managed distant views. Because wide open expanses, views and vistas were so important, landowners had to cooperate with Brown. Brown asked the landowners to redesign their houses so that the views could be better seen from the front rooms & they have agreed immediately

And the landowners would have paid! By the 1760s Brown was earning a fortune, usually £500 for one commission! As an accomplished rider he was able to work fast, arriving on horseback to survey an estate and prepare the plan in detail. Where he did not even have time to visit, Brown created a design on paper and let a subcontractor get on with the job.

His 170 surviving landscapes include the World Heritage Sites at Blen­heim Palace, Highclere Castle aka Downton Abbey, Alnwick, Chatsworth, Syon Byk and Compton Verney. In these places and others, Capability Brown set the standard for contemporary and future landscape designers, and probably landscape artists as well; he created the landscape style that I think of as typically English.

Bowood House, 1880, 

Wiki

Brown laid out the western lawns and removed the early C18th formal gardens. Lawns and trees replaced a canal and parterres on three sides of the house, and also created pleasure grounds in what had been a plantation. Brown turned the lakes into a single expanse of water by removing the dam between the upper long pool and the middle pool, making way for a new bridge. In 2016-7, an influential group of organisations and landowners marked the 300th anniversary of Capability Brown's birth with a nation­wide festival celebrating his life - guided walks, musical event, theatre productions and family activities. And Capabili-Teas, C18th-style tea parties.

Money raising and organising was done by the Landscape Institute, on behalf of a partnership which included the Association of Gardens Trusts, English Heritage, Garden History Society, Historic Houses Association, National Gardens Scheme, Parks & Gardens UK, Natural England, Visit Britain, Visit England and National Trust. Their first goal was to bring the special quality of Brown’s landscapes to a wider audience, both nationally and internationally. The second goal was to have as many of Brown's parks and gardens open to the public as possible. The third goal was to fix Brown at the forefront of modern thinking on design, and on the management of the natural environment.

A remarkable collection of watercolour paintings and drawings, once owned by the Russian Empress Catherine the Great, went on show at Hampton Court Palace. Never displayed before, the exhibition of 60 detailed views of the palace, park and gardens nicely captured Hampton Court during the time when Capability Brown served there as Chief Gardener to King George III. This intriguing collection appar­ently had remained forgotten in the State Hermitage Museum archives in St Petersburg.

Hannah Northam's portrait bust of Brown

2016

No portrait bust existed of Brown. So Haddonstone, maker of architectural stonework, commissioned sculptor Hannah Northam to create a new stonework piece. Examine the bust and see that it does indeed look like Brown's 1773 portrait by Nathaniel Dance (National Gallery). The completed work went on display at Blenheim, and in Haddonstone’s own show gardens in East Haddon near Northampton.

The festival showed a play called Mr Brown’s Directions that was produced at Burton Constable. And Capability Brown themed guided garden tours were held at Bowood House in Wiltshire. Visitors were taken along the lake, to the hidden cascade and through the arboretum, followed by a lunch in the House Restaurant. The rest of the day was free to explore the historic Georgian house and grounds.

Compton Verney in its Brown landscaped park

near Stratford-upon-Avon.

Was Capability Brown always admired? Of course not.. tastes come and tastes go. Brown's reputation declined somewhat after his death, because his landscape style was gentle and undulating. It was not remotely dramatic nor did it express the full conflict of wild nature. In the C19th Brown’s critics were bored with his work.

one of Compton Verney galleries

Many thanks to the Lancelot Capability Brown: a Research Impact Review, University of East Anglia.