Her first federal elections Australian They were held on March 29 and 30, 1901. Of these, 75 MPs were elected to the House of Representatives and 36 MPs in the Senate. As there was still no single federal electoral law, the electoral process was carried out as if it were six separate procedures, which were done by the legislation of each state, which led to significant differences.
However, these elections laid the foundations for the first decade of operation of the Commonwealth Parliament. It is noteworthy that of a total of 111 MPs elected in 1901, 87 had previously served in a colonial parliament. Also, almost half were born in the United Kingdom or Ireland, while most had received their education abroad.
William Grum, who was elected to the House of Representatives, had been transferred to Australia due to theft.
A remarkable case among the members of Australia’s first federal parliament William Grumwho was elected to the House of Representatives after a long career at the Queensland Legislative Assembly. In fact, Grum was a link between the new nation and the origin of the “convict”, since had been transferred to Australia by England nearly half a century earlier (1849) due to theft. Although, finally, he died a few months after his election in August of that year, his son, Litlton, was elected to his first intermediate Commonwealth elections on September 14, 1901.
The new federal parliament operated at Melbourne. The choice of this city as a temporary seat had been held at a “secret” conference, as early as January 1899. However, what would be the particular building in Melbourne that would host Parliament remained unsolved, with the main choices being the building of Victorian Parliament. Finally, during this period, except for a few months, parliament was meeting in the exhibition building.
Melbourne remained the seat of the Commonwealth Parliament until 1927.
The inauguration of parliament was held at noon on May 9, 1901, by the Duke of Cornwall and York and later King George I, who represented King Edward Z. The ceremony was held at the decorated with ten thousand lights – white and red – Melbourne exhibition building, as it was the only city building that was large enough to accommodate the twelve thousand guests.
The General Governor granted the vows of loyalty to all Members before they stopped and re -entered into the Victorian Parliament. It is noteworthy that two Australians were selected for the positions of the first presidents of Parliament: Richard Baker was appointed president of the Senate while Frederick HolderSpeaker of the House of Representatives. House regular meetings began the next day. Together with the launch of Parliament’s work, at the first meeting, the portraits of all its members were also painted.
Melbourne remained the seat of the Commonwealth Parliament until 1927.
Column: Myrto Katsigera, Vassilis Minakakis, Antigoni-Despina Poumenidou, Athanasios Syroplakis
