Who drafted the Australian Constitution

Thanks for your question Kirah and Kate! Before Federation in 1901, Australia did not exist as a nation but was a collection of 6 British colonies. When the colonies agreed to unite – federate – to form the Commonwealth of Australia, they needed a set of rules—a constitution—for how the new nation should work.

The Australian Constitution was drafted at a series of meetings attended by representatives from these colonies. Most of these representatives were members of the colonial parliaments; for example, Edmund Barton—who later became Australia’s first Prime Minister—and Henry Parkes both came from the New South Wales Parliament, Andrew Inglis Clarke was a member of the Tasmanian Parliament and Alfred Deakin came from the Victorian Parliament. After the Constitution was drafted, a referendum – a vote of the people – was held in each colony between June 1899 and July 1900 to approve the document.