Centenary of Federation Victoria: Federation Documents ONLINE

The following excerpt from the petition to the Queen from persons residing on the Eastern Goldfields complains of injustices.

Focus Question
FerQ8 For what reasons did people living in different parts of Western Australia have different opinions about Federation?

… We humbly submit that, as regards the Eastern Goldfields, circumstances calling for Separation have now arisen for the following among other reasons:

Since the establishment of Responsible Government in Western Australia many of Your Majesty's subjects have come from outside the Colony to reside on the Eastern Goldfields. They now compose almost the entire population of that district, which was previously uninhabited and unproductive. By their energy, enterprise, and capital, mines have been discovered and developed, and industries built up and established; and what was previously regarded as a desert has been converted into a populous and prosperous district. The inhabitants of the remaining portion of Western Australia, who are chiefly the settlers before Responsible Government, possess representation in both Houses of Parliament greatly in excess of what they are entitled to, and have thus acquired a power which they have used, and continue to use, towards the inhabitants of the Eastern Goldfields harshly, arbitrarily, and unjustly, and not in accordance with the spirit of the Constitution. They have passed laws and applied public moneys for their own especial benefit and to our detriment; and have otherwise, by unfair and wrongful legislation and administration, oppressed the inhabitants of the Eastern Goldfields. In particular:-
1. They have denied, and continue to deny to the inhabitants of the Eastern Goldfields, that fair and reasonable representation in Parliament to which such inhabitants are entitled by their number, wealth, and resources, through the powers of domination thus secured to and retained by themselves.
2. They have imposed unfair and unequal burdens on the inhabitants of the Eastern Goldfields, of which the following are instances:-
  1. Heavy Customs taxation on food and other commodities, so devised as to place the burden chiefly on us, and to oppress us for the advantage of their monopolies.
  2. Preferential railway rates, imposing special and unequal taxation, intended to establish and support, at our expense, monopolies for their special advantage.
  3. Special taxes on the gold mining industry.
  4. Refusal of railway communication with our natural port on the Southern Coast, in order to force our trade into their portion of the Colony and to distant ports.
  5. The expenditure of a large portion of public moneys in their district, while our larger and more pressing needs are comparatively neglected and ignored.
The inhabitants of the Eastern Goldfields are unanimously in favour of joining the Federal Union of the Australian Colonies, and of accepting for that purpose the Bill for the establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia recently adopted by the Parliaments and people of five other Colonies. That Bill was drafted by an Australian Convention, in which Western Australia was represented equally with the other Colonies. It was finally settled at a Conference of the Premiers of six Australian Colonies, at which this Colony was represented by its Premier, who accepted the Bill in its final form and promised to endeavour to procure the passing of an Act submitting it to the electors of Western Australia for acceptance or rejection. Instead of this the Bill was referred by the Parliament of Western Australia to a Joint Committee of both Houses, who suggested amendments. A petition signed by 18,000 adult males, resident on the Eastern Goldfields, and 5,000 adult male residents of the Western Districts, was presented to both Houses of Parliament asking that the Bill might be submitted for acceptance or rejection by the people of the Colony, but the Houses of Parliament nevertheless refused by large majorities to grant the prayer of the petition, and the Upper House refused to submit the Bill as adopted by the other Colonies. We are thus prevented, by the arbitrary action of the dominant party in the Parliament of Western Australia, comprised as aforesaid, from realising our intense desire to join the Federal Union and participate in the moral and material advantages of Australian National life.

Excerpt from Petition to Her Majesty the Queen from Persons residing on the Eastern Goldfields…, W.A.P.P., 1900, No. 3, pp. 3-8, cited in Scott Bennett (ed.), Federation, Cassell Australia, North Melbourne, 1975, pp. 237-9.