Corowa Conference

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The Corowa Conference was held on July 31–August 1, 1893 in Corowa, a town on the New South Wales border. It brought Federation supporters together to discuss uniting the Australian colonies. Attendance was uneven and it produced no immediate result, but it helped create a plan for Federation that would become very influential.

In 1892 Edmund Barton, a Federation advocate and future first Prime Minister, visited Corowa to push support for the draft constitution from the 1891 National Federal Convention. The Australian Natives’ Association, which had its first New South Wales branch in Corowa, supported Federation. Barton encouraged the creation of Federation leagues in border areas; Corowa and Albury started the first ones, and the idea spread to other Murray River towns, eventually forming the Border Federation League.

A few months later, William Drummond of the Berrigan “everyone is equal” branch proposed a conference to revive interest in Federation. The Corowa Conference met again, but New South Wales leaders did not attend. There was some tension with Barton, and the conference did not thank his Australasian Federation League.

The key outcome came from Sir John Quick and Robert Garran, who on the spur of the moment drafted a plan for an Australia-wide convention with directly elected delegates to draft a federal constitution, to be approved by referendum. At first the idea was ignored and Barton’s league rejected it publicly, but it later proved very influential and, with few changes, was adopted by all six colonies in 1897–98.