Australia Becomes a Nation: Queen Grants Assent
Queen Victoria granted royal assent to the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act on July 9, 1900, merging six separate British colonies into a single federal nation that formally came into existence on January 1, 1901. The constitution was the product of a decade of conventions and referendums, making Australia one of the few nations literally voted into existence by its own citizens. The new federation kept the British monarch as head of state while creating its own parliament, courts, and military. Indigenous Australians were excluded from the census and most civil rights until the 1967 referendum, a deliberate omission written into the founding document.
July 9, 1900
126 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on July 9
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