Westralia Shall Be Free

Failure of Federation
  • Chapter 1
    It was by no means obvious that New Zealand would join the Australasian Commonwealth, while Western Australia would not. Many observers had predicted a united Australian continent, and rightly so.

    Western Australia was granted self-government in 1890, and a convention to unite the Oceanian colonies was held the next year. Western Australian participation there was active. But the Kalgoorlie Gold Rush occurred in 1893. While the newcomers were in strong support of Federation, most of the old-timers wanted to stay as an independent colony, and use the new mineral wealth on much-needed public works. The premier of the colony, John Forrest, was a strong supporter of Federation, and helped to guarantee the rights of small states in the new Commonwealth at the Convention. Before the draft constitution was put to a vote, though, events across the Pacific forced his hand.

    Americans in Hawaii had overthrown the monarchy in 1893, intending to get Hawaii annexed into the United States. Grover Cleveland refused to do so. As such, about a year later, they called a convention to write a constitution for a "Republic of Hawaii".

    The results of the election showed that there was greater support for an independent republic than thought. [This is the POD.] Many Hawaiians were tired of the monarchy, but did not want to be Americans either. This meant the convention had a substantial minority of republicans, instead of being the annexationist united front it was hoped to be.

    President Sanford B. Dole could not dissolve the convention much as he would have liked to, and conducted it with a fairness that surprised his most ardently anti-annexationist opponents. He was receptive to compromise offers from the republicans, even though his appointees had a majority on the convention by design. In exchange for annexation being off the table for the next decade, Americans would be allowed to naturalize after only one year of residence. The Hawaiian Republic was proclaimed on 4 July 1894.

    The action by Hawaii convinced Western Australian opponents of federation that small and isolated states were not doomed to conquest by larger ones. Forrest called a snap election in 1894, hoping to solidify a majority for Federation. Instead, what he got was a bare anti-Federation majority, though he had the advantage in that he faced a weak coalition of rural and mining interests with often competing aims.

    Forrest stayed in power, on condition that Federation not be considered during the term of this legislative assembly. True to his word, it was not--not that it would have mattered as no other colony ratified the draft.

    In 1896, a second National Convention was held. The legislature wanted to defund a Western Australian delegation to it, but the anti-federalist coalition collapsed once Forrest dangled generous subsidies in front of a few members. The delegates were instructed to demand the inclusion of a bill of rights, and equal representation in an upper house, though.

    At this Convention, their second demand was fulfilled, but their first was not. Seeing as no headway was being made on that point, the delegates were recalled after days of fruitless deliberations. As a sign of goodwill, Western Australia was still invited to join.

    The session of 1897 was unusually contentious. Unparlimentary language flew across the floor of the House and at one point a pistol was drawn and cocked, but thankfully not loaded. Eventually, the legislature ordered a popular convention to be elected to decide the question.

    The convention was no less acrimonious: oldtimers were called "sons of convicts" while newcomers were called "sand scrapers." At one point the president had to call in the aid of spectators in the gallery to defuse an impending duel. Another unsatisfactory solution ensued: the constitution would not be ratified until a "bill of conditions" the convention issued was met. These included a comprehensive bill of rights and protections for miners.

    New Zealand joined the Commonwealth without as much haggling, so the convention decided to begin without Western Australia. The Imperial Parliament renamed the Commonwealth the Australasian Commonwealth, but other than that made few substantive changes, other than to delete references to Western Australia.
     
    Tottering but Free
  • Chapter 2
    Forrest retired after the failure of the cause of Federation to unite the Australian continent, and began a successful career writing a set of bestselling memoirs. He was succeeded by George Leake, who pledged to continue Forrest's cause of improving infrastructure. To placate residents of the goldfields who had supported Federation, Henry Gregory, a miner, was appointed his deputy and also Minister for Mines.

    Across the Indian Ocean war was brewing with the Boers. They were stout, independent farmers that were fervent defenders of their own freedom. Leake, while publicly encouraging young men to enlist, was less than enthusiastic about the war in private. His diaries unearthed after his death disclosed his reluctance to let Protestant Christians fight each other. Nevertheless 2000 Western Australians from all parts of the state enlisted, which was enough to form an infantry regiment. This regiment, the 1st Western Australian Infantry, played a key role in attacking the South African Republic from the east and suffered 148 dead and 340 injured. Enlistments trailed off, but conscription was narrowly averted after this regiment showed superior performance against Boer "commandos'" harassment of British troops. In 1901 they were sent home to a well-deserved rest, and received a hero's welcome.

    Leake passed the Tertiary Education Act, establishing a University of Western Australia in Perth. The pipeline supplying water to Kalgoorlie was finished under his rule, as was a tramway system connecting Perth with Fremantle. In 1904, Leake was defeated at the election by the new Labor Party, who appealed to workers by promising to introduce woman suffrage, prohibition, and an eight-hour law. Henry Daglish became the new prime minister. This angered mining interests who cobbled together a party called the Conservative Party to contest the next elections. Leake was elected leader of it to boost its chances of being elected.

    The 1907 elections were the most contentious the colony had seen since the convention. Daglish accused Leake of being a "miner's sycophant", while Leake shot back by saying Daglish "roused the rabble against this colony's institutions". The election was carried on Leake's promise of subsidies for wheat farmers. Thanks to malapportionment, while Daglish won the popular vote, Leake had a majority in the legislative assembly.

    Now returned to the premiership, Leake passed the colony's first immigration law to restrict potential Labor voters from moving into Western Australia. Non-whites were forbidden under all circumstances, while Europeans and Americans were subject to a quota of not more than 1000 per year. British subjects were subject to a quota of 3% of Western Australia's population: engineers, professionals, and farmers were encouraged to immigrate, but miners and unskilled workers found it difficult to move in.

    1910 was a rematch of 1907. Daglish ran on a plank of implementing tariffs on foreign wool and wheat, and removing all restrictions on immigration save for the ban on non-whites. At Coolgardie where the two campaign trains happened to meet, Daglish famously questioned Leake, "Sir, is it free goods or free men?" This was swiftly adopted as a campaign slogan. An independent movement, the Populist Party, managed to carry Albany on a platform of introducing a minimum wage. Its leader, Edward Barnett, charged the Labor Party with "betraying the basis of all free government, the free people of Western Australia." In the end, a hung parliament was produced, where the Populists carried the balance of power.
     
    War, Peace, and Disease
  • Chapter 3
    The Populists gravitated towards Daglish at first, but Leake promised to include a bill of rights in the Western Australian constitution. They refused to join Leake's government, though, and were only willing to sign a confidence and supply. When Barnett proposed a minimum wage in 1911, Leake tried to shoot it down, but Gregory voted for it as did several other Conservative members. While the Populist Party did follow the terms of the confidence and supply agreement, Gregory voted to bring down the government when Leake issued a motion of confidence. This, in addition with the Labor members, was enough to force a new election. Gregory and his fellow rebels were promptly drummed out, and formed the Liberal Party in response.

    The 1911 election was surprisingly civilized despite it being a four-way election. No rallies were held; instead the primary method of campaigning was by posters and brochures. The high point of the campaign was when a small biplane took off from a makeshift aerodrome in Perth towing a banner reading "VOTE LABOR" and dropped 1,000 pamphlets over the unsuspecting town of Mandurah. Members of the Liberals attempted to reply by mounting a gramophone upon a telephone pole that would play a vinyl record that said "VOTE LIBERAL" over and over again, but a sudden downpour destroyed it.

    As expected, no party won a majority. The Conservatives won the rural areas, but the mining areas were bitterly divided between Daglish and Gregory supporters. Gregory was ousted from his seat by a few votes, and would never regain parliamentary status. The Populists spread to Bunbury, and had enough seats to form a majority government with Labor.

    Barnett and Daglish formed a coalition government, which finally put a bill of rights into the constitution. The governor had power to veto laws if he believed they violated it, which could be overturned by a two-thirds vote of both houses. It was not enforceable in court, and existing laws did not need to conform to it. The first bill vetoed, ironically, was one of their few pet projects: the minimum wage bill was rejected as a violation of freedom of contract, and enough votes could not be mustered to overturn the determination.

    In 1914, a group of Bulgarian soldiers mistakenly crossed the border into Romania, and tried to force a whole hamlet full of Romanians out of what they thought was Bulgaria through force of arms. The Bulgarian soldiers then torched the hamlet after looting it of all its valuables. The Romanian press reported the story of a 14-year-old girl who had seen Bulgarian soldiers rampaging through the surrounding countryside, engaging in unspeakable cruelties. Austria-Hungary threatened to invade Romania if it mobilized, and demanded Romania pay Bulgaria compensation for "slander of its honorable army". This drove Romanians in Transylvania to begin a rebellion. Russia proceeded to come to the aid of the Romanians. Germany and Italy proceeded to support Austria-Hungary. France threatened to invade Germany unless it ceased fighting Romania. Germany then, rolling through the Low Countries, attacked France.

    Dutch protests to Britain led to its declaration of war against the "Triple Alliance". Western Australian troops, working with Australasian and Dutch overseas soldiers, began to invade New Guinea. The small garrison in New Guinea surrendered rather than face killing by the rumored savage headhunters in the woods. Western Australia and Australasia also cooperated in taking German Samoa. Finally, in 1915, conscription was implemented, freeing up the volunteer soldiers to fight in Europe. With 10,000 new soldiers, a new offensive could be launched in the southern theater of the Western Front, with the objective of taking Turin and Milan. While the Lombard Offensive made good gains in its first two months, Turin and Milan were successfully held, and Italy stayed on the side of the Alliance.

    As conscripted men were gradually being sent to the trenches of Europe, a daring plan was hatched. Early in 1916, amidst heavy rain, 20,000 Australasians and Western Australians landed in the small town of Ladispoli only a short distance from Rome. They managed to achieve a successful bridgehead relying on the fact that this area had not been guarded. Italian regulars swiftly returned to repel this invasion, killing over a thousand of this invading corps at the cost of three times that number to themselves. Entente forces moved in swiftly to the pocket: once L'Aquila fell, Italy was in danger of being cut in half, and surrendered.

    The performance of the Australasians, especially at the Battle of Valcanneto, when they fought on despite being outnumbered and encircled, earned the respect of nearly all involved. When the United States entered on the side of the Entente, it was all over for the three remaining Alliance powers, and they were forced to sign a treaty in October 1917. Poland was made an independent country, and Romania's borders would be expanded. However the demands of the multiple nationalities for their own state were not answered. Austria-Hungary remained a multinational empire, and Russia an oppressive autocracy.

    Peace brought new changes: the "flu". A deadly strain of influenza was observed circulating among Italian prisoners of war captured by the Australasians, who caught it. An attempt by the Western Australian government to impose a quarantine on returning soldiers was swiftly negatived by a nearly unanimous legislative assembly. Three months after the pandemic was first noticed, Barnett, Leake, and Gregory were dead, and Daglish was dying.

    A new person entered the scene: Harald Rasmuson.
     
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