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You can find Sir Henry Parkes statue in Centennial Park just down
from the Oxford Street gates near Paddington. He was one of
Australia's most important politicians, and Premier of New South
Wales for 20 years. In 1889 he declared that the time had come to set about creating a
‘great national government for all Australia’. His
speech in the town of Tenterfield began a process of
constitution-making that led eventually to the
proclamation of the Australian Commonwealth.
Although Parkes died in 1896 before his vision could be
realised, his contribution was often remembered.
Parkes' 1889 speech at Tenterfield
In his famous address at Tenterfield School of Arts, Parkes drew attention to a recent report by a British army officer, which proposed that the colonial forces unite into a single army. Parkes went a step further, as reported in The Sydney Morning Herald:
The great question which they had to consider was, whether the time had not now arisen for the creation on this Australian continent of an Australian Government, as distinct from a local Government and an Australian Parliament. (Applause.) In other words, to make himself as plain as possible, Australia had now a population of three and a half millions, and the American people numbered only between three and four millions when they formed the great commonwealth of the United States. The numbers were about the same, and surely what the Americans had done by war, the Australians could bring about in peace. (Cheers.) Believing as he did that it was essential to preserve the security and integrity of these colonies that the whole of their forces should be amalgamated into one great federal army, feeling this, and seeing no other means of attaining the end, it seemed to him that the time was close at hand when they ought to set about creating this great national government for all Australia. This subject brought them face to face with another subject. They had now, from South Australia to Queensland, a stretch of about 2000 miles of railway, and if the four colonies could only combine to adopt a uniform gauge, it would be an immense advantage in the movement of troops. These were the two great national questions which he wished to lay before them. …
As to the steps which should be taken to bring this about, a conference of the authorities had been pointed to, but they must take broader and more powerful action in the initiation of this great Council; they must appoint a convention of leading men from all the colonies, delegates appointed by the authority of Parliament, who would fully represent the opinion of the different Parliaments of the colonies. This convention would have to devise the constitution which would be necessary for bringing into existence a federal government with a federal parliament for the conduct of this great national undertaking. (Applause.)
Sydney Morning Herald, 25 October 1889
