Federation Style
1890’s to 1914
Around 1890, the debate – private and public – over the federation of Australia began in earnest. It was a time when our forefathers started to establish a national approach to many concerns which had, until then, began regional, even competitive between the colonies. In 1889, Sir Henry Parkes, premier of the colony of New South Wales, gave the famous ‘Tenterfield Oration’, calling the colonies to join together as a federation with a two-house Parliament. His speech precipitated a national conference on the subject in 1890 and another in Sydney the following year. The term ‘Federation’ is used to define a period in our history as much as an indigenous style of domestic architecture.