The making of a nation: Who voted for Australian federation?

Abstract

Between 1898 and 1900, six British colonies held referendums on whether or not to join together as states in a federal Australia. We focus on New South Wales, which was pivotal to the affirmative result. We associate the share of ‘yes’ votes at the polling booth level with a range of county-level characteristics. We find no evidence that manufacturing districts favoured federation in the expectation of a higher tariff, and those born in the colony tended to vote against it. Voters close to land borders and further from Sydney strongly favoured federation but this support was undermined by low turnout.