Federation Footage

These are still images from the film footage of the Australian Federation ceremony on 1 January 1901. They capture the very moment that federated Australia came into being. Donated by the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, they are a remarkable survival from a period when cinema was finding its feet and establishing its place in culture and in record keeping.

The images of the procession and ceremony making the Inauguration of the Commonwealth of Australia in Sydney on 1 January 1901 are significant national and international documents. Filmed, on a New South Wales Government contract, by the Salvation Army which had a department which specialised in instructional films, the Federation footage shows what are thought to be the first moving images of a nation being created.		The films begin with comprehensive coverage of a grand street procession through Sydney. This included vice-regal, diplomatic, military participants and others. The bust of Sir Henry Parkes is prominently presented in the Italian float, probably because it had been sculpted by an Italian artist. The Earl of Hopetoun's carriage and those of the other dignitaries are seen on their way to Centennial Park where a temporary pavilion has been erected.
This footage shows the dignitaries at the pavilion, the signing of the official documents that commissioned the first Australian Federal government and which created it first Prime Minister. The portly figure of Edmund Barton is clearly evident in his dark frock coat, a contrast to the fine, uniformed figured of Hopetoun, who represented the Crown. Australia's second Prime Minister, Alfred Deakin who had been Barton's Attorney General, tall, bearded and urbane, is also evident. Many other figures can be identified, their movement and demeanours discerned.

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