Shaping Australia: The Constitution

Product Description

The early days. The British penal colony of New South Wales was created in 1788 as a place to send people convicted of offences in British courts. Eventually New South Wales was split into six separate colonies: New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia. Each colony was independent of the others, with a governor appointed from London. These very powerful governors did not have to answer to any elected government other than the British parliament. From the early 1800's people in the colonies began to agitate for their own governments. So, in 1850, the Imperial Parliament in London passed the Australian Colonies Government Act, enabling each colony to establish its own government whenever it wished.