FOR AND AGAINST: Regional Differences
Document 7

Mr J. W. Hackett advocates Federation on the grounds of the transcontinental railway.

Focus question
FerQ7 What benefits will Federation bring to Western Australia?

MUCH TO HOPE FROM FEDERATED AUSTRALIA

... No towns had so much to hope from Federated Australia as the two towns of Perth and Fremantle. One of the very first things which would be undertaken, in his opinion, by the Federal Parliament, would be the construction of that great line linking the East and the West, having one exit and entrance on the Pacific Ocean, and another exit and entrance on the Indian Ocean. (Hear, hear.) Fremantle would become, as it were, the mouth of Australia. It would take in all the products and commodities of all the world, and pass them as it were, through an artery to the heart of the continent. (Applause.) There was another consideration. The theatre of European interest had within the last few months been transferred to the shores of China. Through that war, they took on themselves obligations which would necessitate an immense naval force being preserved for generations ahead, to watch the Indian Ocean and the China Sea; and that naval force would find its true base in that spot where the railway lines of Australia converged, and that was in the port of Fremantle. (Applause.) He solemnly believed that without Federation they had no earthly chance of having that railway constructed. (Hear, hear.) They would lose the support of South Australia, who, it was said, wanted to federate in order to secure the markets of Western Australia. Perhaps so; certainly she wanted to get her share, but if they shut her out of their markets, was that likely to encourage her to grant permission to construct the line? Nothing of the kind, she was only mortal like themselves. They had, further, to secure the goodwill of New South Wales, for New South Wales had also a large section of that line to be constructed, which would bring millions of passengers and goods from Sydney right on through to the port of Fremantle. New South Wales had also to be conciliated and propitiated, and if they refused to do that, they would find that the colonies which held the destiny of that line in their hands had become their bitter and their lasting foes. If they only enrolled themselves as members of the Australian Commonwealth it would be to find New South Wales eager to co-operate in the construction of that line. The mails from Sydney to London would save four days on the outward journey and four days on the inward journey as soon as that railway was completed, and that was far too heavy a bribe for the merchants of Sydney to resist ...

Mr J. W. Hackett, speech at Fremantle, West Australian, Perth, 26 July 1900, cited in Scott Bennett (ed.), Federation Cassell Australia, North Melbourne, 1975, p. 234.