Tenterfield Oration for Federation

Date: October 24, 1889 • Location: London, United Kingdom

Sir Henry Parkes, Premier of the Colony of New South Wales, gave a speech in which he called for the federation of the six Australian colonies.

Sir Henry Parkes, was a colonial Australian politician and the longest-serving non-consecutive premier of the Colony of New South Wales, the present-day state of New South Wales in the Commonwealth of Australia. He has been referred to as the "Father of Federation" due to his early promotion for the federation of the six colonies of Australia, as an early critic of British convict transportation and as a proponent for the expansion of the Australian continental rail network.