The frail small ship

N THE first day of 1901, at Centennial Park in Sydney, proclaimed the inauguration of the Commonwealth of Australia. That day, the six customs departments and their staff formally joined the Commonwealth, but the postal and defence departments and their post offices and ships and artillery were not transferred until two monthslater. — duly sworn in as first prime minister — may have thought on that first day of 1901 of the strange brew of motives and events that created a united Australia. There was the hope of financial gain for thousands of merchants, farmers, factory owners and labourers. There was the idealism and pride and all the complex emotions of nationalism and Empire. To a smaller degree there was the recurring fear of a foreign invader who could only be repelled by a united Australia. The first months of a new nation are usually died. Perhaps no other death in the 20th century so captured the people’s imagination. She was the most famous woman in the world (no film star or pop star existed then) in the eyes of most people of 1901. The most celebrated monarch in history, she presided over the largest empire the world had seen.