Australian Federation, 1901
A set of study materials for Years 7-10 Australian History
These notes are included on the educational multimedia CD-ROM Oz I.D. -The Search for Australian Heritage and Identity published by the Board of Studies NSW.
| 1. Reasons for federation
| 2. Background to Colonial politics
|
| 3. A Classroom Simulation
| 4. Sydney in 1901 |
Sydney at Federation in 1901 - a study unit
How long did people live in 1901%
Despite many improvements in public health, death still came suddenly and early. Even by 1901, 26.63% of Sydney children under the age of five would die, 20.9% of these before their first birthday. In the suburbs, it was worse: 35.2% of those under 5, 25.94% in their first year.
Many Sydney graveyards show this - graves with a lamb, a broken column or a cherub on them. If you survived babyhood, tuberculosis, typhoid, diphtheria and whooping cough were the big killers. If you had to go to hospital, there were 13 hospitals in Sydney, and a leper colony at Little Bay. By 1900, men could expect to live till 52, and women till 56.
Investigate this
Visit a large graveyard and look at the ages of death on the headstones. You could work out some averages for yourself this way, if you collected a large enough sample of ages from graves.
Where did people live?
The Rocks, Woolloomooloo, Balmain, Ashfield, Glebe, Leichhardt, Newtown, Paddington, and Redfern were all overcrowded, unhealthy and filled with poor and unemployed. Alexandria, Annandale, Arncliff, Darlington, Eveleigh, Pyrmont, St. Peters were also working-class suburbs.
Burwood and Bondi were "Gentlemen's residences", Ashfield was "residential", Darling Point and Double Bay were "fashionable", Canterbury was still a scattered area featuring large houses in extensive grounds, Elizabeth Bay, Pott's Point, Rushcutter's Bay, Gladesville, Point Piper, Rose Bay and Strathfield had "large houses surrounded with beautifully laid out grounds". Flemington and Homebush were very scattered and Rookwood and Auburn were still officially "in the country". The North Shore was still mostly virgin bushland, with North Sydney, Manly and Mosman settled.
Investigate this
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Find the oldest map you can of where you live. How different was it? What streets were there and which ones are new?
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Ask some old people who are residents of your area and get them to tell you about the changes that have taken place since they have lived there.
The Importance of the Churches in Sydney in 1901
Religion was a very strong and divisive force in Sydney. The split between the Catholics and the Protestants was very deep, and many political battles were fought between churches over State Aid to denominational schools. This has been an important political issue in Australia since this time.
Who went to what church?
The four major religions were Church of England (46.58%), Roman Catholic (25.96%), Methodist (10.24%), and Presbyterian (9.91 %). Most people in Sydney attended church every Sunday. The Church of England had about 620,000 members, and 106,000 attended every Sunday. Catholics had 347,000 and 109,000 attended every Sunday. Methodists had 137,600 members with 85,700 attending every Sunday, and Congregationalists had 24,831 members with 13,525 every Sunday.
Sunday sport was frowned upon, and the Royal Easter Show did not open on Good Friday.
Catholics Versus Protestants
In 1900, St. Mary's Cathedral was consecrated, and according to some sensitive Protestants, Archbishop Redwood made some slightly critical remarks about Protestants. The Sydney Morning Herald, on the morning of 23 September 1900 came out with the headline, "The Attack on Protestantism", and reported that an enormous gathering assembled in the Sydney Town Hall "to protest against the attacks on Protestantism and vice-regal presence at the dedication of St. Mary's Cathedral." By 7.30 pm, there were 6000 people at the protest.
Talk about this
Why do you think so many people got upset about the Archbishops remarks and the fact that the governor attended ("vice-regal presence") the dedication of St. Mary's Cathedral?
Try this
In one history of the period, there is this sentence:
"...More than half called themselves Anglicans, Methodists, and
Presbyterians, the first being three times as numerous as the other
two, and almost twice as numerous as the Roman Catholics..."
Can you make a bar-graph of these percentages of religions? If this was the only information you had about Australians at the turn of the century, approximately what percentage of Catholics were there in Australia?
What is a "Federation" style house?
One of the most common ways in which we still here about Federation, is in the term "a Federation-style house". What are they?
They were originally a weatherboard house with gabled roof of corrugated iron and a verandah with bull-nosed galvanised iron roof. The toilet, bathroom and laundry were usually attached to the back of the house, near the backsteps. There were very few lawns, except in the homes of the wealthy, and they were cut with a scythe, or grazed by animals.
People began discarding iron lace, and elaborately turned or fretsawn wood became the most fashionable material for verandah railings, columns and house decorations.
Investigate this
Look around the suburbs for Federation-style houses. Are they still very common?
What was it like going to school in 1901?
Primary Schools in Sydney were old-fashioned even then, with a lot of memorising. Their methods were heavily criticised, and in 1901, the government sent two commissioners overseas to inspect other systems of education. Many reforms were made as a result. Still, the cane was used a lot, on boys and girls. Up to 20 strokes were given to an 11-year-old boy who wagged, and lied about it.
Very few people in Sydney were lucky enough to go to High School in 1901. There were only two government schools: Sydney Boys' and Sydney Girls High. If you were rich enough, you could go to some of the big private schools.
In Queensland, in 1888, fewer than half the school-age children were attending school in spite of the Queensland government 1875 Education Act making education free, secular and compulsory. The "compulsory" was not enforced until 1900. The newspaper, The Boomerang of 14 July 1888 estimates that there were 80,000 school-age children of the time, and the average daily attendance was 35,319.
In NSW, there was an Education Act in 1880 that had made education compulsory also. This had expanded the number of schools in NSW. Sydney university had admitted women for the first time, and had expanded their enrolments. There was a great demand for secondary education.
It was fairly common for children of poorer families to truant to go to work, or to leave school to work in factories, to sell newspapers or to help their mothers do piecework at home. In farming areas of NSW and Queensland, children helped at harvest time and often milked the cows before coming to school, where they fell asleep at their desks.
Talk about this
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When was your school founded?
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Does your school have records that go back to it's beginnings?
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What is the importance of keeping records (or archives)?
Investigate this
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Ask your parents, or better still, your grandparents, what school was like for them, and compare it to yourself. What has changed and what hasn't?
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You will find that it is hard to get good detailed answers because people forget easily.
Youth culture
Gangs of "young larrikins" hung around causing trouble in the gas-lit streets of Sydney after dark. They belonged to the "Glebe Push" the "Rocks Push" or the "Argyle Cut Push". They are described as having "slouch hats on the back of their heads, greasy curls, no collar or waistcoat, a bright handkerchief around their necks, an overhanging shirt, and tight trousers." They were mostly young unemployed males.
Their girlfriends wore very colourful clothes: favouring colours such as purple, puce, violet, scarlet and emerald green, frequently mixed together. They wore ostrich feathers drapeed over their straw hats. They wore high lace-up boots coming almost to the knee. often embroidered with designs and mottoes. They apparently wore shorter skirts than was fashionable with "respectable" people.
In 1890, only 3.1% of tobacco smoked was cigarettes. In 1904 this had jumped to 11.1%., but only the most "modern" of women smoked.
Talk about this
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In most of the books we read about the time of Federation, we read about older people, and political leaders. How do you think we could find out what young people thought?
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What do you think life was like for young people then? What do you think they might have done for entertainment?
For further research
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You may wish to investigate further about the end-of-the-century "Pushes" or gangs in Sydney.
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You may wish to investigate further what people wore at the time.
What were the big events of the time?
The Bubonic plague struck Sydney in March,1900, and the Sydney Harbour Trust was set up to clean up the rat-infested wharves in the Rocks. Circular Quay had been modernised in 1890-1897, and the new Pyrmont Bridge opened in 1902. There were 21 breweries in Sydney in 1901, but 16 of them were closed down after 1901, by tough brewing regulations.
For further research
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You may wish to further investigate the Sydney Plague in 1900. There are still evidences of the burning and cleanup in The Rocks. Can you find out what they are?
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Sydney's 21 breweries - you may like to try and find out what some of their beers were called. Do any of the advertisements or posters still exist?
How was society changing at the time of Federation?
Unemployment was a big problem. There was a long and severe depression in the 1890's with strikes and violence. Most Sydney workers worked a 48-hour week, with half a day's holiday on Saturday. Some could be asked to work a 70-hour week, such as restaurant employees. In 1901, an Industrial Arbitration Act was passed to regulate work hours and wages, but women still only received 50% of the male wage.
Investigate thi
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One of the first and most important Acts passed by the new Federal government was the Industrial Arbitration Act that regulated Australian work hours and wages. You may wish to look up this and other legislation that made life better for Australians.
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Women's wages - find out what government legislation has improved wages for women.
Who were the most famous people in Sydney in 1901?
Henry Lawson wrote most of his most famous poems and stories at this time, and Banjo Patterson had written his "Man from Snowy River". Victor Trumper, a great cricket batsman was very popular. He had a sports store in Sydney where Rugby League was born in 1907. Nellie Stewart , actress and singer, was very popular in the theatres of Sydney. The Cavill family, and the "Australian Crawl" in swimming was becoming known.
Talk about this
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If you had to pick five people that you could say were the most important to the people of Sydney this year, who would you pick?
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Why is this such a difficult task?
Investigate this
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Who were Henry Lawson, Banjo Patterson, Victor Trumper, Nellie Stewart and the Cavills? Find out more about these people.
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Who have we missed? Try and find out some more important people that were in the news of the times.
What did Sydney people usually eat at the turn of the Century?
As Federation Day approached, we know that most people cooked their meals on fuel stoves, though gas was becoming popular. There was no refrigeration, though people used ice to cool things. Most people ate a lot of chops, steaks and sausages, boiled potato, boiled cabbage, and peas that were boiled into a mushy mess. Tomato sauce was becoming really popular in 1900, and meals were usually washed down with a cup of tea or beer.
Talk about this
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It's very hard to work out "what most people ate". Try surveying your class - what do most people in your class eat? You will find that it is very difficult to get "an average meal."
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Discuss some of the historical sources we could use to find out:
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What was served for breakfast, lunch or dinner in wealthy households?
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What was served in poorer working class households?
- What was served in Sydney Restaurants and Hotels?
Investigate this
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Find out when refrigerators were first used in peoples houses. Ask some old people or your grandparents if they can remember when it was. Look it up in the library.
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Remember - just because a refrigerator has been invented, it doesn't mean that every home will have one straight away - they might have been too expensive for most people.
For further research
The first factory for refrigeration of meat was set up for overseas
export in Lithgow in 1875. Cattle and sheep were slaughtered there,
and the meat was transported in refrigerated vans to Darling Harbour
in Sydney, where it was frozen to be shipped to Britain and the
United States. Meat in England was four or five times more expensive,
so the exporters expected good sales. The first successful shipment
of frozen meat was the ship Strathleven, which sailed from Sydney
in November 1879 and reached London in February 1880.
(This information is from Manning Clark, A Short History of Australia,
p146)
Were Aussies big meat eaters?
By the end of the 19th century, Australians had become enormous meat eaters by world standards, consuming as much meat per person per year as the residents of both the United States and Great Britain combined...
As Australians had a taste for mutton, the meat most commonly eaten was that of the sheep. All classes and groups in society ate lots of mutton. One mid-19th century writer about Australian food habits stated firmly that there was very little difference in the diet of poor and rich, "except as regards the mode of cooking and the condiments used with it."
Condiments: Sauces or seasoning. Things used to give additional flavour to food.
Try this popular recipe from the turn of the century
Puftaloons: They are like damper - a mixture
of flour, water and baking soda.
(Use 1 teaspoon of baking soda to 1 cup of flour. Add water to make
dough, and then fry in boiling lard or mutton fat. They were served
with "Cocky's joy" - (golden syrup) as a sauce over a plate full
of puftaloons.
Golden syrup was a quarter the price of jam, and was used for
sweetening anything from a cup of tea to pouring over pudding.
(This recipe is from Richard Beckett, Convicted Tastes, Food
in Australia, 1984. p81)
Talk about this
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Make a list of all the things used today to cook your meals that weren't available in 1901.
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How much harder was it to cook? How do you think this influenced what they ate?
What was it like, working in the kitchen without modern conveniences?
Richard Beckett, a cook and author of a book about the history of Australian food called Convicted Tastes, says this about what it must have been like for the kitchen workers who prepared the banquets for the big celebrations on Federation Day:
"In the 19th century great kitchens, because of the heat, cooks
were allowed unlimited quantities of beer to prevent dehydration.
And... they invariably finished up dead drunk at the end of every
day's shift, which began at 6 am and usually finished at 1 am the
next day."
Richard Beckett, Convicted Tastes, Food in Australia, 1984.
p81
Richard Beckett, Convicted Tastes, Food in Australia, 1984. p113
Talk about this
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What do you think Richard Beckett means by "presumed" beef pies?
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What is most different about the food you eat and the food they ate in 1901?
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Are meat-pies, "typical Australian food", being replaced by the hamburger as the most common take-away food, do you think?
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What sort of information would you need to find out about this?
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Who would you ask?
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Where would you look for that sort of information?
What was the price of food like in 1901?
"Soon, statistician T.A. Coghlan... churned out figures - like those in The Seven Colonies (1901) - to show how remarkably cheap living was in our paradise. For instance, of an average annual expenditure per inhabitant of #36 19s 5d, he found that only #15 15s 7d went on food and drink - that is , only 37.5 per cent. In Great Britain, the figure was 42.2% and in Germany 49.1%. As for the annual consumption of meat, while the average in Great Britain was 109 lbs and in America 150 lbs, in Australia it was 264 lbs. This was four times as much as in Germany and ten times as much as in Italy.
An inquiry by the Commonwealth statistician in 1910-11 found that
the average spent on food had fallen to 29.3%, while percentages
in other leading industrial nations were between 54% and 60%. "It
is not unlikely," the government investigator considered, "that
expenditure on food alone furnishes a true indication of the standard
of material well-being." And so, Australia, with the world's cheapest
food, came to be thought of as enjoying the world's highest "standard ".
Michael Symons, One Continuous Picnic, A History of Eating in Australia, 1982 .p60
Talk about this
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Do these statistics really tell us how well the people lived in the first decade of the Twentieth century?
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Is more meat beneficial than other foods, and is it a good measure of how well-off Australians were?
Try this
We will assume that the inquiry by the Commonwealth statistician in 1910-11 was correct - Australia, had the world's cheapest food, and enjoyed the world's highest "standard of living".
Imagine that you are the government investigator who must present
the information given above from Michael Symons, One Continuous
Picnic, A History of Eating in Australia, to the newspapers.
Present the figures in graph form.
(Hint - pie graphs might be best).
Try this
Make a poster to convince British, German and American citizens to emigrate to the new "Federated" nation of Australia. You may wish to use the information provided above in your poster
Where did Sydney People buy their food?
Governor Bligh opened the first markets in 1806. A "new" market was opened on March 4, 1809. Situated in Market Square on Market St, it was a paling enclosure around some sheds, open on Tuesdays and Saturdays from sunrise to noon. In Hay St, a little further out of town, in 1834, a new market opened - the "Hay market".
Market St remained important until the Queen Victoria Building opened in 1893. It was not successful. The Haymarket then dominated Sydney.
For further investigation
You may wish to research the history of Sydney's markets.You might find out about Paddy's markets, the Haymarket, or the Queen Victoria building as a site study.
How did people travel around in Sydney in 1901?
In 1901, the horse was still the main form of transport. They were everywhere. You could smell horse manure everywhere - the smell rose from the heaps in streets and gutters. It was a big health hazard, as you might imagine.
Talk about this
We have very different types of pollution today. Try to imagine what Sydney must have been like with horses everywhere rather than cars
Australia's 2 and a half million horses
Here's one way of finding out how important horse transport was in Australia at the time: John Sands' Sydney Directory listed 122 retail saddlers and harness makers in 1901, 211 coach, carriage and buggy proprietors, 114 coach builders, and 51 livery stables.
Horse numbers reached their peak in 1918, when there were 2,500,000 horses in Australia.
Investigate this
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For comparison with that number of horses: by 1901, the Sydney metropolitan population was 481,830, (the city of Sydney itself being 112,137) and the population of NSW was approximately 1,400,000.
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You may have heard of the famous Cobb & Co. transport company. You may wish to research the history of horse transport in Australia. Horses were very important to the development of the early settlements.
Did improvements in transport make Federation more likely?
Australia is so large that the huge distances and the isolation of communities from each other has had some effect on the way Australia has developed.
One Australian Historian, Geoffrey Blainey wrote a book in 1966 called The Tyranny of Distance, that was about the importance of new transport methods and the importance of distance in Australian history. Other historians disagree about some of his ideas, for example, great distances played no part in the fact that the colonies remained dependent on Britain for imports and especially exports. There was a huge inflow of textiles, metalwares, machinery and transport equipment from Britain.
In fact, some historians have said that the cheapness of ocean transport and the efficiency of the steamship services made it very hard for Australia to develop its own industries. Protective measures and tariffs had to be adopted for Australian industries.
Distance has been important, however, in many ways. It was much cheaper for British people to emigrate to Canada or the United States. In order to promote the immigration of a lot of people to the Australian colonies, the governments of the colonies felt they had to assist immigrants with their fares. Even during the gold rushes, Victoria and New South Wales were assisting about one half of all emigrants. Queensland, Western Australia and New Zealand were forced to offer better terms to get their share of immigrants.
The competition between Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide for the trade of the Riverina, and other rivalries helped speed up the development of transport and make the distances "shorter".
The breaking down of isolation
"On the morning of 14 June, 1883, a huge crowd gathered in Albury, a border town on the Murray river, to witness the connection between the railways of New South Wales and Victoria. The streets were gaily decorated with bunting; school children lined the streets to welcome the premiers of both colonies. That night a distinguished assembly sat down to a banquet at which the governor of New South Wales congratulated those present on the auspicious union of the two colonies by the iron rail. These Australian colonies, he went on, were peopled by the same race, spoke the same language, possessed the same traditions and aspirations. The iron link they had forged that day would be the emblem of union. He hoped this would be the dawn of a fresh era of happiness and prosperity. His colleague, the governor of Victoria, expressed his confidence that the inevitable result of the rail union would be the union of the colonies themselves.
Similar sentiments were expressed when the rail link between Victoria
and South Australia was completed in January 1887, and between New
South Wales and Queensland in January 1888....
Improvements in communication also provided the natural setting
for the growth of the feeling of unity. Melbourne and Adelaide were
linked by electric telegraph in July 1858; Sydney and Melbourne
in October of the same year; Sydney and Brisbane in 1861; Sydney
and Adelaide in 1867; Launceston and Melbourne briefly in 1859,
and permanently in 1869; Port Augusta and Darwin in 1872; and Adelaide
and Perth in 1877."
Manning Clark, A Short History of Australia, 1981, p144
Try this
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You are the the governor of New South Wales, or the governor of Victoria. Write a short speech for the celebration banquet on 14 June, 1883, in Albury, on the occasion the connection between the railways of New South Wales and Victoria.
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In your speech, mention some of the events that Manning Clark has listed in the above passage, saying why they make "a federation of the colonies", more likely.
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Remember - you are giving the speech in 1883: don't mention events that haven't happened yet such as the rail link between Victoria and South Australia in January 1887...
Talk about this
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Do you think the competition between the colonies for transport and trade might have sped up Federation or slowed it down?
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What sort of evidence would you need to find?
For further research
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Bicycles became a big craze in 1900, taken up by men and women, (A Mrs. McDonald rode from Sydney to Melbourne in 1899). What can you find out about early bicycles in Australia?
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The first Australian-made car, the Thomson, was shown at the 1900 Easter Show. What was it like?
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The first imported motor car into NSW was in May 1900, also. What can you find out about it?
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Most Sydney streets were paved with ironbark wooden blocks. Can you find any evidence of this in old city streets?
Sydney Trams and Road Accidents in 1901
In a history of transport in NSW, published by the Ministry of Tranport for the Bicentennial in 1988 called Going Places, the authors tell us that steam-powered trams were introduced to Sydney in 1879. They ran on tracks laid from Hunter Street along Elizabeth Street to the Devonshire Street Station. During the next few years the service was extended to Woollahra, Waverley, Glebe, Forest Lodge, Camperdown, Leichhart and Annandale.
Apart from the noise and dirt, a major disadvantage of the small heavy trams was their inability to stop quickly. This meant they often ran down pedestrians with tragic results. Harold Finch-Hatton wrote in 1885, in a book called Advance Australia, said that they "rush down the most crowded thoroughfares, terrifying horses, and killing on the average, about two foot-passengers a week."
No cars, but lots of traffic
There were no internal combustion engine cars on the roads at that time, but we must not imagine that everybody rode horses - nearly all the traffic was horse-drawn vehicles.
A writer in a magazine of the time, Australasian Coachbuilder and Saddler, (15 July 1895), wrote about the state of the coachbuilding industry, which gives us a glimpse of the number of vehicles that were on the roads:
"The total number of licensed public vehicles in Sydney last year was 2,180, made up of 290 omnibuses, 26 wagonettes, 1,215 hansom cabs, and 649 drays and vans. A coachbuilder with a turn for figures has elicited from this bare statement of numbers, a fact which should be encouraging to those whose principal occupation is the making and repairing of this class of vehicles. By allowing twelve years to be the average life of each of these vehicles, he shows that, without making provision for increase in number, Sydney requires each year, under normal conditions, 24 omnibuses, 2 wagonettes, 101 hansom cabs, and 55 drays and vans. Then estimating the value of each omnibus at #110, each wagonette at #70, cab at #100, and van at #20, he shows that the total amount which must be spent in the bare renewal of old vehicles is #13,980 per annum. Carrying the calculation further it is shown that, on supposition that two-fifths of the cost of each vehicle is labour, the wages paid amount to #5,592, and if each man employed receives an average of #100 per annum, it follows that under ordinary conditions 56 men are required to be constantly at work to keep Sydney supplied with public vehicles."
Quoted in A. Davies, W. Wickman, A. Wilson, Going Places, A Bicentennial Pictorial History of Transport in NSW, p.42.
Trams versus Buses in Sydney
In an earlier issue that same year, a writer in the Australasian Coachbuilder and Saddler, (10 May 1895) said about the competition between horse-drawn buses and steam trams on Sydney's roads:
"The reduction of the 'bus fare from threepence to twopence on most of the routes running into Sydney has evidently proved a success. The twopenny fare puts the buses on an even footing with the trams, all of which charge twopence in the city sections. Ladies prefer the 'buses to the trams because they are cleaner, while many business men elect to travel by them because they run through the chief business streets of the city, and are, therefore, more convenient."
Quoted in A. Davies, W. Wickman, A. Wilson, Going Places, A Bicentennial Pictorial History of Transport in NSW, p.39.
Who won?
During the 1890's, most horse bus systems had passed from small, owner-operators to the control of the Sydney Tramway and Omnibus Company. Despite increased efficiency and direct competition over fares and routes, patronage flowed to the government-owned steam trams. In this environment only inner suburban bus services survived. Buses operated to places like Glenmore Road, Paddington, Victoria Street North and Potts Point from Circular Quay via Pitt Street.
Sydney cabs: expensive but fast
A British writer and traveller,James Inglis, wrote in his book Our Australian Colonies in 1880:
"The vehicles are the best I have seen in any city. They are, as a rule, elegant in make, light in draft, roomy, clean, springy, and comfortable... The horses are generally sleek and well-groomed... The cab tariff is looked upon by strangers as very excessive. The regular charge is four shillings an hour for the first hour, or ninepence for every additional quarter of an hour. The first idea is, that in a country of cheap horses this charge is prodigiously unreasonable; but a little reflection and judicious enquiry brings down the stranger to accept the charge, high as it is as inevitable... Australian cabmen drive at a rattling pace, oftener over than under the regulation, six miles an hour...."
How big was Sydney in 1901?
In 1851, the total population of NSW was 182,424, and the total population of Australia was about 437,665. By 1871, the population of Sydney was 137, 586 and the population of NSW was 516,704. By 1881, there were 2,306,736 people in all the colonies - 777,025 in NSW, 873,965 in Victoria, 221,849 in Queensland, 285,971 in South Australia, 30,156 in Western Australia, and 117,770 in Tasmania.
At 31 March 1901 census, after federation, the new Australian commonwealth had a population of 3,773,801, and was almost equally balanced between the sexes. More than 77% had been born in one of the six states and 18% in the United kingdom.
By 1901, the Sydney metropolitan population alone was 481,830, (the city of Sydney itself being 112,137), the population of NSW was approximately 1,400,000. Still, even in 1901, Pitt Street from Bathurst Street South was still residential. The railway linked Sydney to Parramatta in 1855, and gradually other lines linked outlying areas.
The rapid growth of Sydney
| Year | Population | Annual Growth Rate |
Percentage of NSW population in Sydney
|
| 1871 | 137,586 | - |
27.4 |
| 1881 | 224,939 | 5.0 | 30.0 |
| 1891 | 383,333 | 5.5 | 34.0 |
| 1901 | 481,830 | 2.3 | 35.6 |
| 1911 | 629,503 | 2.7 | 38.2 |
| 1921 | 899,059 | 3.6 | 42.8 |
The Railway to Parramatta
"The railway opened on 26 September 1855, with great ceremony.Cannons
were fired, flags flew, and people came in their thousands to see
the first train arrive. Those who had mocked the idea of the railway
were silenced amid the town's jubilation The entire rolling stock
then comprised four engines with tenders from Robert Stephenson
& co. and several teak carriages from Birmingham, "richly fitted
up in the most modern style." Trains ran six times daily from 6
am at approximately two-hour intervals. Until 1861 wood was burned
in the locomotives, and passengers complained almost daily about
the destruction of their clothes by sparks."
Peter West, A History of Parramatta, 1990, p29
For further research
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The history of the railway is very important to the development of Sydney, The states, and federation.
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One of the most interesting is the history of the different rail gauges in each State - particularly the necessary train change at Albury, which continued for a long time.
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You may wish to study this problem, with reference to federation.
| 1. Reasons for federation
| 2. Background to Colonial politics
|
| 3. A Classroom Simulation
| 4. Sydney in 1901 |
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