The Corowa Conference was a political meeting held in the New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 border town of Corowa

Corowa, New South Wales

Corowa is a town in the state of New South Wales in Australia. It is on the bank of the Murray River, the border between New South Wales and Victoria, opposite the Victorian town of Wahgunyah. Corowa is the administrative centre of Corowa Shire...

 in 1893 to discuss a proposed federation of the Australian colonies

Federation of Australia

The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia formed one nation...

.

As a border town, Corowa was required to pay customs duties on items crossing the Victoria

Victoria (Australia)

Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

n-New South Wales border from 1873. It was due to these customs duties that local residents became advocates for federation. Local support for federation also appears to have been spurred by the idea that a new federation would need a federal capital in the border districts. Subsequently Corowa residents lodged a claim for federal city status.

Background

Because of the strong local support of federation, Corowa became the backdrop to many federation meetings and speeches. The Australian Natives Association

Australian Natives Association

The Australian Natives' Association , a mutual society was founded in Melbourne, Australia in April 1871. The Association played a leading role in the movement for Australian federation in the last 20 years of the 19th century. In 1900 it had a membership of 17,000, mainly in Victoria.The ANA...

 played a large part in federation and it comes as no surprise that local support for federation was evident in the fact that the first Australian Natives Association

Australian Natives Association

The Australian Natives' Association , a mutual society was founded in Melbourne, Australia in April 1871. The Association played a leading role in the movement for Australian federation in the last 20 years of the 19th century. In 1900 it had a membership of 17,000, mainly in Victoria.The ANA...

 branch in New South Wales was founded in Corowa. In December 1892 Edmund Barton

Edmund Barton

Sir Edmund Barton, GCMG, KC , Australian politician and judge, was the first Prime Minister of Australia and a founding justice of the High Court of Australia....

 an advocate of federation and Australia's first prime minister visited Corowa to urge consideration of the convention bill up before the New South Wales Parliament. He also supported the idea of local federation leagues. The first of these leagues was founded in Albury and Corowa. It was then picked up in other Murray River

Murray River

The Murray River is Australia's longest river. At in length, the Murray rises in the Australian Alps, draining the western side of Australia's highest mountains and, for most of its length, meanders across Australia's inland plains, forming the border between New South Wales and Victoria as it...

 towns. The eventually all banded together and formed the Border Federation League. Several months later William Drummond of the Berrigan

Berrigan, New South Wales

Berrigan is a town located on the Riverina Highway in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Berrigan is in the Berrigan Shire Local Government Area and is the location of the Berrigan Shire Council offices...

 branch of Federation League proposed the idea of a conference to revive flagging interest in federation.

The Conference

The conference was set for 31 July through 1 August. It was held at the Corowa Court House because the conference coincided with the Corowa agricultural show and there was no other suitable venues available. The conference was attended by 74 delegates from federation leagues on both sides of the border. Women were permitted to attend but were not allowed to speak. Dan Egan, of the Bendigo

Bendigo, Victoria

Bendigo is a major regional city in the state of Victoria, Australia, located very close to the geographical centre of the state and approximately north west of the state capital Melbourne. It is the second largest inland city and fourth most populous city in the state. The estimated urban...

 branch of the Australian Native Association wrote a resolution to the federation dilemma. This resolution, presented by Dr. John Quick

John Quick (politician)

Sir John Quick , Australian politician and author, was the federal Member of Parliament for Bendigo from 1901 to 1913 and a leading delegate to the constitutional conventions of the 1890s.-Early life:...

, proposed that each of the Australian colonial parliaments should enact legislation providing for the election of representatives to a federal convention where they should consider and adopt a bill for a federal Constitution. This was overwhelmingly passed.

Results of The Conference

The local press depicted the conference as `the first demonstration for federal unity which has taken place outside the large centres of population, as well as the first important expression of the wish of the people in this respect, as distinguished from previous movements, which have all more or less been at the instigation of leading politicians. While federation has been attributed mainly to singular figures, the conference marked a turning point in which it was much more popular for federation to occur. The town has adopted the nickname "The Birth Place Of Federation".