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Federation Gateway Image:
An invitation to meet Their Royal Highness the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York in celebration of the opening of the first Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia. [1901].
Chromolithograph; 23 x 29 cm.
NLA Call no. PIC S40098

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA'S
FEDERATION GATEWAY


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Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) lending collection is Australia's largest film, video and multimedia lending library.

This guide produced by the State Library of South Australia is divided into two sections: general sources about the progress of Federation in Australia; and South Australian sources written by South Australians, or about the South Australian contribution to Federation.

The full text of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act [9th July 1900].

The Australian Federation Full Text Database will provide, for the first time in a fully searchable form (by speakers and phrases), the key primary source texts of Australian Federation, including the official reports of the debates of the 1890s, the major participants' accounts and memoirs, as well as a number of important related texts. Over forty works will be freely accessible through the database including, in addition to the Debates, works by Barton, Deakin, Parkes, Piddington, Quick, Reid and Spence.

The Australian Republican Movement is an organisation that is committed to working towards an Australian republic, with an Australian as our Head of State.
Australians for Constitutional Monarchy are a community organisation dedicated to promoting the importance of our Constitution to the Australian public and lobbying for the retention of constitutional monarchy as the preferred system of government for Australia.

The official website of the National Council for the Centenary of Federation which was established to mark the centenary of Federation. This site included links to the state and territory Centenary of Federation Committee websites, as well as information about Federation activities and events, the History and Education Program as well as What's On around the country. This site is now archived in PANDORA.

Developed by Latrobe University, the Melbourne Chinese Museum and the Australian Studies Centre of East China Normal University in Shanghai with support from the National Council for the Centenary of Federation. Includes indexes, guides and websites to Australian libraries, archives and an 1898-1936 Chinese newspaper.

Constitutional Centenary Foundation

The Constitutional Centenary Foundation was a non government organisation established to promote public understanding and raise awareness of the Australian constitution leading up to the centenary of Federation. This site is now archived in PANDORA.

  • Constitutional Convention, Feb 2-13, 1998

    This site covers the Constitutional Convention held in Canberra in 1998. It includes the agenda, the delegates, full text of the speeches, convention news and media summaries, the results and John Howard's closing comments. It is aimed at school students and has information about the republic, educational notes, a virtual tour of the convention and interactive games like "Write your own constitution".

  • Documenting a Democracy

This website traces the development of Australian democracy through the key documents directing the constitutional paths taken so far. There are eight different sets of original constitutional instruments: a set for each Australian State, one for the Northern Territory, and the set for the Commonwealth of Australia, established by Federation in 1901. This site also has a picture album as well as a timeline showing what was happening when each of the constitutional boundaries were formed.

This site is the State Library of New South Wales' contribution to the Centenary of Federation celebrations in 2001. It provides a virtual collection of Federation ephemera that show a populist perspective on the Federation story.

During the Centenary of Federation, the Australian War Memorial's travelling exhibition Forging the nation, federation - the first 20 years explores our spirit and identity from Bushman to Digger. Forging the nation is appearing Australia-wide as a part of the Memorial's ongoing travelling exhibition program. This online version features highlights of the exhibition, as well as supporting education materials.

As the guardian of Commonwealth government records the National Archives of Australia holds a vast range of information relating to Federation. There is an online guide to their Federation collections, fact sheets, a Federation album, photos, books, CD-ROMs and links.

National Film and Sound Archive (formerly ScreenSound Australia) plays a leading role in preserving and collecting Australia’s unique film, television and sound heritage. The National Collection of Screen and Sound is available online in a text database listing over 385,000 items and spanning 100 years of Australia’s film, television, radio and recorded sound heritage.

In June 1996 the National Library established the PANDORA Preserving and Accessing Networked Documentary Resources of Australia) Project in order to develop policies and procedures for the selection, capture, archiving and provision of long-term access to Australian electronic publications. You can search Pandora under Politics and Government for electronic sites relating to the recent constitutional debates in Australia.

PictureAustralia contains online images from many significant cultural institutions, including the Australian War Memorial, the National Library of Australia, and the State Libraries of New South Wales, Tasmania and Victoria.

The Pictures Catalogue contains online images from the National Library of Australia’s Pictorial Collection. Images relating to Federation can be found in the Pictures Catalogue and high quality photographic reproductions can be ordered from the National Library's Pictorial Section.

RAAM is an online register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts. The RAAM database contains records describing non-government archives held in Australian archival repositories and libraries. RAAM is designed to provide researchers with sufficient information to enable a decision to be made on whether to follow up on accessing the material.

The records of the Australasian Federation Conference of 1890 and the Australasian Federal Conventions of 1891 and 1897/8 are among the most significant founding documents of the Australian nation. This web site provides access to the following documents: Debates and Proceedings of the Australasian Federation Conference, Melbourne, 6-14 February 1890; Debates of the National Australasian Convention, Sydney, 2 March to 9 April, 1891; and Debates of the Australasian Federal Convention of 1897/8 in three sessions.

The State Library of Victoria created a comprehensive site on the Federation of Australia. The site included a detailed Chronology; Themes including the Australian Natives' Association, Railways and White Australia and racism; People; Quotes; a Gallery with political cartoons drawn in response to the issues surrounding Federation; Editorials from newspapers in 1901 as well as a detailed Bibliography and Links to other Federation web sites. This site is now archived in PANDORA.

This centre has been set up with support from the National Council for the Centenary of Federation. Its goal is to improve and stimulate public knowledge of Federation history in time for the centenary celebrations.

One hundred years ago men gathered to draft the Australian Constitution. In January 1998, women from all sections of society gathered at Parliament House in Canberra to contributed their perspective. This site includes the program and papers from the convention as well as some key outcomes including: The Republic, Bill of Rights and Electoral Reform. There is a list of suggested reading, links to other informative sites and online papers of interest including: The Potential in Strengthening Responsible Government; In the Year 2001: Visions of Australia's Constitution in the 21st Century and Women and the Constitution. The site is now archived in PANDORA.

 
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Souvenier handkerchief of Australian Federation 1900
Linen handkerchief; 45.1 x 45.5 cm.
PIC OBJ A4000614X
National Library of Australia