Why republicanism died out as the federation movement gathered pace.

In a recent ABC documentary, Paul Keating, speaking with Paul Kelly in 100 years: The Australian Story lamented the dilution of the republican movement over the last half of the twentieth century. “I thought, you know, the time’s come to actually put this on the political agenda. You see, the republic was an after-dinner mints and coffee conversation for 40 years.” However, historians such as Geoffrey Bolton believe the demise of the republican movement occurred much earlier, with the birth of the Australian federation in 1901.

Up until the early 1890’s, independence from Great Britain was a much talk about subject in the Australian colonies. Committees and leagues were set up to discuss viable alternatives to the British Crown. Newspapers and periodicals extolled the virtues of a republic yet as the century drew to a close the minds of men turned to less drastic alternatives in an attempt to achieve constitutional liberalism. Leaders of the republican movements became leaders in parliament. Some of the middle-class advocates for independence accepted knighthoods from a Crown they were supposed to be opposed.

In times of prosperity, people are less likely to push for change. Whereas earlier in the century Britain was regarded as an unforgiving ruler, improvements in the living and working standards experienced by the population ushered in significant changes in the attitude towards the Crown. While the Australian Socialist League in 1887 was republican, the following year saw an out pouring of pro-British sentiment coinciding with the centenary celebrations of British settlement in Australia.