Holbrook, Carolyn, and Megarrity, Lyndon (2025) Federation or 'Fetteration'? Secessionist sentiment in Queensland and Western Australia during the first decade of the Commonwealth. History Australia, 22 (1). pp. 79-100.

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Abstract

Historians examining the early years of the Australian political system that was established at Federation in 1901 have tended to consider it from the perspective of the Commonwealth government. More recently, historians have emphasised the experiences of those who were disadvantaged or excluded by the federal compact. In placing the new Commonwealth at its centre, the historiography has given less attention to the experience of the former colonies in their transition to statehood. This article shifts the post-Federation focus towards the newly minted states. It examines how state governments and their populations dealt with the challenges of a federal system, with particular emphasis on secessionist sentiments in Western Australia and Queensland. Further, the article will argue that the discontents of the new states are insufficiently recognised and that analysis of ‘teething problems’ in the first decade of Federation provides important context for understanding the subsequent history of the federal compact.

Item ID:	85523
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1833-4881
Keywords:	Federation; Queensland; Western Australia; Secession
Copyright Information:	© 2025 the Author(s). Published by Informa UK limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. the terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Funders:	Australian Research Council (ARC)
Projects and Grants:	ARC grant DE19010067
Date Deposited:	19 May 2025 23:20
FoR Codes:	43 HISTORY, HERITAGE AND ARCHAEOLOGY > 4303 Historical studies > 430302 Australian history @ 100%
SEO Codes:	13 CULTURE AND SOCIETY > 1307 Understanding past societies > 130703 Understanding Australia’s past @ 100%
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