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ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 48| December 2000
Federation Gateway
The 100th year of a federated Australia is near. Dont yawn! Federation has more to it than bearded men. Information Services, with help from the Multimedia Unit and Web Services now has this 1/1/1901 moment and the events leading up on a Federation Gateway web site. The site is for historians, students and people wanting to learn about those people Alfred Deakin called makers of miracles. The site is also about the period in which they worked and the complex politics that made a Commonwealth of Australia far from certain until late 1900.
How do you get into all this? www.nla.gov.au/guides/federationis one way. Another is via the Whats news on the NLA home page into the Federation Gateway icon and then onto the graphic of two women with shields. One is Australia in virginal white with flowing locks; the other is Britannia with shield and armour. They are holding a large menu of six choices: About, People, Chronology, Resources, Links, and Exhibitions.
People will lead you into a list of politicians, artists, writers, a farmer and an Aboriginal leader. Click on Sir Henry Parkes and you will get a portrait of Federations father, an account of his long and multifaceted life and a list of booksusually available at most libraries for those interested in reading more. There are profiles of the slow, methodical, patient Sir Edmund Barton, the brilliant reformer, philanderer and democrat from South Australia, Charles Cameron Kingston; the calculating, roly-poly Sir George (yes-no) Reid of New South Wales; that subtle Victorian, Affable Alfie Deakin as well as Mary Gilmore, Rose Scott , James Unaipon, Livingston Hopkins and Tom Robertsmany Australian icons for reasons other than their Federation roles.
To get the full flavour of Federation in the making there is a need to read the words of Parkes, Barton, Deakin, Kingston, Sir Samuel Griffith (Queensland), Sir John Forrest (Western Australia) and others as they weave through the conferences and convention debates of the 1890s. Chronology links with the digitised proceedings of these gatherings. Here is Sir Henry proposing a motion at the 1890 Federation Conference:
That the best interests and the present and future prosperity of the Australasian Colonies will be promoted by an early union under the Crown of these Colonies, under one legislative and executive Government on principles just to the several Colonies.
Alongside Federation Gateway there are a growing number of excellent web sites (either compiled or under construction) by the National Archives of Australia, the Australian War Memorial and others. Links will get you into them.
Exhibitions announces such coming online exhibitions as The Medical Experience, Fashion and Invitations and Events in which the National Library will be participating with the National Archives of Australia, the State Library of Victoria and the State Library of New South Wales.
Federation Gateway is growing and will soon have additional
material on politics, music and culture. Kate Boesen, Ursula Macdermott, Kylie
Moloney, Roxanne Missingham, Blair Doherty, Ralph Sanderson and I have worked
and will be working on it. Please look at it and give us your feedback!
Bill Tully (btully@nla.gov.au)
Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: dthomas@nla.gov.au