SIR JOHN QUICK, FEDERATION & THE AUSTRALIAN NATIVES' ASSOCIATION

On the occasion of the celebration of the birth of Sir John Quick, it seems particularly appropriate to be celebrating the birth of this great man in the context of Victorian Heritage Festival and related heritage activities around Bendigo.

Sir John Quick lived just beyond his 80th birthday in a life which saw the birth of a nation. During his lifetime he achieved success in many fields - in journalism, in politics, in the legal profession, in public service. He was interested in literature and literary societies, and was a member of the Authors' Society and a patron of the Australian Literature Society. The members of the Sir John Quick Committee here today represent some of the many facets of Sir John's public and private life - as well as demonstrating their commitment to honour the name of this great man.

Sir John Quick was an honorary member of the Australian Natives' Association, and it is especially in this regard that I wish to speak today. As Archivist & Librarian for Australian Unity Friendly Society, the company which emerged in 1993 as the successor to the ANA, I am privileged to work with the historical records of the Australian Natives' Association. There are three themes or topics which can be meaningfully expressed in the one sentence - Federation, the Australian Natives' Association and Dr John Quick (later to become Sir John Quick) - and it is the conjunction of these three that I wish to dwell on this morning.

The work of the Australian Natives' Association last century for the achievement of Federation has been well documented. Many of the records which tell this story are held in our archives in South Melbourne (a summary list may be viewed on our Internet site at http://www.austunity.com.au/dir/about/history/Federation.shtml). The role of Sir John Quick in the movement for Australian Federation spanned nearly 20 years - but as has been noted by my fellow committee member Michelle Matthews - it is almost forgotten even by Bendigonians.

An examination of the records of the Bendigo Branch of the ANA - Sandhurst at that time - reveals some of the work undertaken by Dr John Quick, and his relationship with the Branch. Dr Quick represented the Branch at the Corowa Federation Conference in August 1893, along with J B Young. The full report to the Branch of these delegates is contained in the Sandhurst Minute Books. Soon after the Corowa Conference, in October 1893, the Bendigo Branch of the Australasian Federation League was formed with Dr Quick as its President. The Secretary of the League was J H Curnow, another well-known Bendigonian, who at that time was also the Secretary of the ANA Sandhurst Branch.

In the following year, 1894, the Bendigo Branch of the Australasian Federation League published a pamphlet "The New Federation Movement : from the Corowa Conference August 1893 to the ANA Conference March 1894". This publication documents, through a series of newspaper reports, accounts of meetings and conferences in Victoria and New South Wales which advanced the cause of Federation. The name of Dr John Quick appears many times. There are reports of meetings of the Bendigo League and accounts of Dr Quick's visit to Sydney in early 1894. Dr Quick also spoke at a public meeting in the Hawthorn Town Hall, in February 1894, convened by the ANA Federation Conference. "He was cheered vociferously - and declined to speak on the benefits of Federation - holding that the question had advanced beyond the stage when that was necessary".

For some insight into the connections between Sir John Quick and the Sandhurst Branch of the Australian Natives' Association, I have looked to the words of his contemporary Charles Daley. Charles Daley held office in the Sandhurst Branch and was its president in 1894. He was also on the Executive Committee of the Bendigo League. It was in the early eighties that Dr Quick came into close contact with the Australian Natives' Association (although our Archive does not hold Sandhurst Membership Registers for that period). Although not a native of Australia, Dr Quick found in the Association kindred spirits, and a definite rallying point in the efforts to obtain federal union. In the early days of the ANA, especially in Bendigo, the condition of Australian birth was not strictly adhered to, and Dr Quick became very closely associated with the Sandhurst branch and its ideals. He was a trustee of the Branch and chairman of a sub-committee which arranged the issue of debentures in order to build the ANA Hall. (Now the site of the extensions to the Bendigo Art Gallery). At the banquet to celebrate the opening of the new Hall in 1894, Dr Quick, in responding to the toast 'Federation', candidly advised the Victorian Ministry to seize the great opportunity for the realization of the federal movement and to deal with it in a statesman-like spirit "without petty parochialism or bickering for place and pay".

When Dr Quick later wrote his pamphlet "A Digest of Federal Constitutions" in 1896, it was published by the ANA Sandhurst Branch. In the period following the successful Federation referenda in Victoria, the Sandhurst Minute Books record the following:

29/6/1899
"That this Branch resolves to place on record its keen sense of gratification for the magnificent majority polled in favor of the amended Commonwealth Bill on the 20th June in New South Wales and also to recognise the valuable services rendered by the late T Jefferson Connelly and by Dr John Quick in the cause of Australian Unity"

and in 1900

29/11/1900
"Mr G W Knight approached the Branch to suggest steps be taken to honor Dr Quick as the mover of the historical resolution which has brought about Federation ... asking if the rules of the Association permit him to express himself further on the subject. A committee appointed to consider proposal for a presentation to be made to Dr Quick"

however, a fortnight later,

13/12/1900
"Correspondence received from Dr Quick asking the Branch not to do anything in the way of a presentation"

Another contemporary, and also an Honorary (Life) member of the ANA (Prahran Branch), Alfred Deakin, commented on Dr Quick in his recollections of the Federal Campaign thus:

"As a lad his lot was hard and he was obliged to earn his living on a mine before he was in his teens. Dark, handsome, sturdy and intelligent, the lad possessed a dauntless determination and trustworthiness which enabled him to educate himself so as to qualify for a reporter on a Bendigo paper. From thence he passed to the Melbourne AGE, rising at last to the position of Chief of Staff and writing an occasional leading article. At the same time he pursued his University course, being one of the first to win the LLD degree at the Melbourne University. he commenced practice in what he considered his native city and soon won his way into Parliament where his diligence, information and power of speech soon gained him a prominent place. He was offered a seat in the Gillies-Deakin Cabinet of 1886 but declined, and not applying himself to the care of his constituency as he might, was unexpectedly unseated. From that time forward he devoted himself to his practice and gradually to the Federal question of which he became one of the Victorian leaders."

In 1932, the year of his death, when the ANA again held its Annual Conference in Bendigo, Charles Daley refers to the invitation which was sent to the five surviving members of the Federal Convention of 1897-98. Only 2, Sir Alexander Peacock and Sir John Quick, were able to attend - along with J B Young and Charles Daley, who were the surviving members of the Federation League Executive. At this conference, in the ANA Hall, Sir John Quick was accorded a most enthusiastic welcome. He gave a reflective address on the achievements and 'danger spots' of Federation, and at the Banquet in the evening, he proposed the toast 'Australia and the ANA'. He spoke of some disappointments of Federation but concluded that "in regard to trade and commerce - interstate and foreign, external relations, naval and military defence, it had been pre-eminently successful." it is believed that this was Sir John's last public utterance on the cause with which he had been associated for most of his life.

In concluding, I would like to repeat the words of Charles Daley, Sir John Quick's contemporary "The brilliant career of Sir John Quick, who rose from the humblest vocation to the highest honours, should be a constant source of inspiration and encouragement to our Australian youth. His attainments, his patriotism and splendid record of public service has left a name honourably inscribed in the annals of Australian nationhood."

And be one people : Alfred Deakin's federal story, with an Introduction by Stuart Macintyre. Melbourne University Press, 1995

Minute Books of the Sandhurst (later Bendigo) ANA Branch

The new federation movement : from the Corowa Conference 1st August 1893 to the ANA Conference 27th March 1894. Compiled and published by the Bendigo League, 1894

Sir John Quick : a distinguished Australian : an appreciation by Charles Daley. Read before the Historical Society of Victoria, 27th March 1933

Beryl Armstrong
Librarian & Archivist
Australian Unity Friendly Society
114 Albert Rd
South Melbourne 3205
03 9697 0266
library@austunity.com.au