What happened
The six colonies — New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania — merged into a single federal nation, and Edmund Barton became the first prime minister.
Background
A draft constitution was worked out through the 1890s and approved by referendums in the colonies. The federation movement had built up over years, marked by moments such as Henry Parkes’s Tenterfield Oration of 1889.
Consequences
Under federalism the national government took charge of defence, trade, and immigration, while the states kept their own powers. As a self-governing dominion of Britain, Australia began its life as a nation.