The Process of Federation in Australia

The process of federation took a long time. It was not until the 1880s that a movement towards federation really began. Before this period of time, the colonies were separated by a belief that federation wouldn't do much good. Each colony was proud of their own independence. Some colonies, such as South Australia, did not want to join other colonies that had convict pasts. The smaller colonies, such as Tasmania, feared that they would be swallowed up by the larger ones while the larger colonies thought they would end up paying the way for the smaller colonies. …