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1 January 1901Primary source · 2 sourcesWell documented

The six colonies federate into the Commonwealth of Australia, and White Australia becomes law, 1901

Nationhood and racial exclusion enacted in the same first parliament

On the timeline · around 1 January 1901 · War, Depression, and a New NationPenal Colony to FederationWar, Depression, and a New NationThe six colonies federate into the Commonwealth of Australia, and White Australia becomes law, 190118701880189019001910

Quick facts

Federation date
1 January 1901
First Prime Minister
Edmund Barton
First Parliament opened
9 May 1901, Melbourne
Key exclusionary law
Immigration Restriction Act 1901 (dictation test)

What happened

On 1 January 1901, the Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed at a ceremony in Sydney's Centennial Park, uniting the six formerly separate British colonies into one federated nation under a new constitution, with Edmund Barton sworn in as interim Prime Minister. The first elected Commonwealth Parliament opened in Melbourne on 9 May 1901. Among its earliest acts, the new Parliament passed the Immigration Restriction Act 1901, the legal foundation of what became known as the White Australia Policy, which used a dictation test of fifty words in any European language, at an immigration officer's discretion, to exclude non-European migrants; between 1902 and 1909 only 52 people ever passed the test, and after 1909 no one did.

Why it matters

Federation created the political structure of modern Australia, but its first parliament immediately used that structure to write racial exclusion into national law, a policy that shaped Australian immigration for the better part of the twentieth century. The Act remained in force until 1958 in its original form, and elements of the broader White Australia framework persisted into the 1970s.

How we know

The Constitution's proclamation and the first parliament's sitting dates are recorded by the Australian Electoral Commission; the Immigration Restriction Act's text and its dictation-test pass rates are held and published by the National Archives of Australia.

Sources

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Part of a timelineHistory of Australia33 events · 65,000 years of the world's oldest living cultures, a penal colony's dispossession of them, and the reckoning still underwayView all →
The six colonies federate into the Commonwealth of Australia, and White Australia becomes law, 1901 · History of Australia · SourcedStory