The path to independence: Australia’s constitution and her British ties

Abstract

The Australian Constitution created the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. It was written ‘at a time of ambivalence about Australia’s place in the world, whether it was an independent country or a child of England. Whilst the framers were seeking greater independence from Britain, the Constitution, which itself formed part of an Act of the Imperial Parliament,2 was a colonial document that assumed the primacy of the ‘Mother Country’. At Federation, the legislature, executive and judiciary branches of the Commonwealth and States were all subject to the control of the Imperial Parliament, British Ministers and the Privy Council. Today, Australia is an independent nation, free from British control. However, unlike other nations whose independence is symbolised by a major historical event, Australia’s independence was achieved ‘[n]ot with a bang but a whimper. The process of severing her British ties occurred through a series of milestones spanning nearly nine decades.