MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
Henry Parkes laid out his campaign for federation at a banquet held in his honour in the New South Wales town of Tenterfield. The year was 1889. Now, some notable historians have quickly pointed out how dreadful this speech was. But no-one denied its significance. Historian and author Ken Halliday is based in Tenterfield. He's the chair of the local National Trust committee and he's written a book on Parkes called Parkes' Federation Calls To The People. And, Ken, welcome to Bush Telegraph.
KEN HALLIDAY:
Good morning, Michael.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
Good to have you with us. He was an amazing man, Henry Parkes, wasn't he?
KEN HALLIDAY:
He was an absolutely amazing man. He was what was termed, I guess, a 'penniless immigrant' from Britain. And he came out to Australia in 1839 at 24 years of age and rose right to become the father of federation.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
And 50 years on from that first arrival in Australia he cut quite an imposing figure in any public arena.
KEN HALLIDAY:
Oh, absolutely. Just his physique alone was great. And he stood out as a person. Throughout his public life, he thrived on visionary rhetoric, such as his federation speech here in Tenterfield.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
Well, Ken, I'll come back and we'll talk more about the man and, I guess, the mission he was on in a moment. But let's hear an excerpt that we've adapted from a newspaper report, a Sydney Morning Herald report of the day after the Tenterfield Oration. So this is our very own Caleb Cluff as Henry Parkes.
CALEB CLUFF:
Australia has now a population of three and a half millions. The American people numbered only between three and four millions when they formed the great commonwealth of the United States. The numbers were about the same, and surely what the Americans had done by war, the Australian people could bring about in peace without breaking the ties that hold them to the mother country.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
That's our re-enactment of Henry Parkes addressing Tenterfield. With me is Tenterfield historian and author Ken Halliday. Ken, what did you think of that performance?
KEN HALLIDAY:
I thought it was very well done. Very well done and I did note the applause and cheers that followed, which, of course, was noted in that Herald report so well. And I think it was a great choice of words — what Americans had done by war, Australians could bring about in peace.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
And we always loved to compare ourselves to the Yanks even then.
KEN HALLIDAY:
Well, seemingly, yes. Well, we would have by then. America had not long gained their own independence, I guess.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
Why did Henry Parkes choose Tenterfield to open up this issue?
KEN HALLIDAY:
There were several reasons, I guess. Parkes was, as we all are aware, he was the Premier of New South Wales at the time, and he'd been to Queensland to talk to the officials up there about federating the Australian colonies and he decided on his way back to Sydney that he'd stop off at Tenterfield, which had favoured Parkes a few years earlier when, in 1882, Parkes had lost his seat of East Sydney on the Friday in the state election or colonial election and the Tenterfield election was due to take place on the following Monday. And Tenterfield only had one candidate, Edward Reeves Whereat. So over the weekend there were lots of toing and froing and Whereat, by Monday, had stood down in favour of Parkes so he could go back into parliament.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
That's extraordinary.
KEN HALLIDAY:
So that's one reason he stopped by in Tenterfield. And Parkes often said that because of that, and he represented Tenterfield for two years after that, he owed Tenterfield a debt of gratitude.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
And did Tenterfield return that debt by turning up in force for the banquet in his honour?
KEN HALLIDAY:
Yes, I think they did. It was a relatively small room, but it accommodated 80 people according to the Herald report. 80 people turned out for the dinner. And, interestingly, that includes some women, which was very unusual in 1889, that women actually went out to hear public addresses.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
And yet was it not true that in Parkes' political life leading up to the Tenterfield Oration, he'd been quite a strong supporter of women's equality and rights?
KEN HALLIDAY:
Absolutely, absolutely. And I think as we study Parkes the man, we get a deep appreciation of how much he enjoyed female company, as well.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
Nicely put, Ken.
KEN HALLIDAY:
He was, and he carried that right through with him.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
I don't want to be too primitive about this, but he was a bit renowned as a pants man, wasn't he?
KEN HALLIDAY:
As a?
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
Pants man. A bit of a romancer.
KEN HALLIDAY:
Well, he was. Yes, I guess he was. But I think that was because it seems to me he enjoyed female company and wherever he was he was surrounded by females. Yeah, I think also, when you look at portraits of Parkes, the women really must have swooned over him.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
Because he had this extraordinary build, didn't he? He had, in his later years, this snowy white mane of hair and beard. And he was not averse to really stacking on the performance when he was in public.
KEN HALLIDAY:
Absolutely, absolutely. And it was that that made him such an astounding physique, as well as his ability to use the English language to great advantage, as well.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
And his powers of oratory, of course, stood him in good stead because I think he had 14 years, off and on, as New South Wales Premier, or more?
KEN HALLIDAY:
In total, yes. I've forgotten the length of time, but in parliament, as well. And even when he was out of parliament he continued to campaign, if you like.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
Now, Ken, what was the import of the Tenterfield speech in terms of the progress that our country took towards federation, which was another 11 years away?
KEN HALLIDAY:
It was 11 years, that's right. And, interestingly, Parkes had made the step to take… It was the first time he'd actually gone out to the public. They'd talked about it within the parliament and even in certain lots of pockets around Australia, federation was not a new issue when Parkes made his Tenterfield speech. But it was the first time that he'd gone out to his people to gain their support for it out there. And I think that was a very important aspect of it.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
And then he went back to Sydney. There was another chance before 1890, I think, when he first addressed the federation conference in Melbourne. Did he also address an audience in Sydney on the same topic?
KEN HALLIDAY:
Yes, he did. He did indeed. In fact, one of the letters from the governor, Lord Carrington, at the time, to Parkes the day after his Tenterfield Oration, urged Parkes to get back to Sydney and do it all again because this is where the people were listening and Carrington wasn't all that impressed with the newspaper reports of it, although The Herald carried about three columns not as a verbatim report, but in the third person. So Parkes did hurry back to Sydney on the premier's train. He waited in Tenterfield one day and did some visiting and went to the schools and so on and the premier's train came up and collected him. He got the green light, if you like, all the way through to Sydney in record-breaking time, averaged 50 kilometres an hour on the old steam train.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
Oh, they were speeding.
KEN HALLIDAY:
Which was really speeding. It was a record time that was never beaten by any of the trains, even when we got to the diesel stages. And so he did hurry back, but, as I say, he was given the green light. There were very few stops. And he went back and in a day or so actually delivered very much the same oration in Sydney.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
Would he have been working off notes or was he one of those people who can simply speak off the cuff and sound like it's all prepared?
KEN HALLIDAY:
I believe he spoke right from the cuff with all of his addresses and speeches, yes.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
Yet I mentioned earlier, Ken, that some historians have described that Tenterfield Oration as 'dreadful'.
KEN HALLIDAY:
Yes, they have, they have. And even from our own local investigation of it, a young lass at the time, who was up in her 90s when I interviewed her, she said it was a terrible speech. But she was only a young lady at the time and she'd gone along with her father and she said Parkes was just a complete bore.
KEN HALLIDAY:
But the chap who proposed the vote of thanks, Christie Murray, was an English novelist and he actually turned the whole thing around and said it was time that Britain did more for Australia and so on. And she was quite impressed and smitten with Christie Murray.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
Really?
KEN HALLIDAY:
She also said the food wasn't all that good, either, because when she and her father got home they were pleased to have another meal.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
Sounds like she had a shabby night altogether. But whether you enjoyed the tone of his speech or not, the content, of course, was incredibly significant because, as you've mentioned, Ken, he went in an incredibly fast travel trip back to Sydney, did it again and then the year after appeared in Melbourne at the federation conference. And we've got an excerpt from that speech, as well, performed again by Caleb Cluff.
KEN HALLIDAY:
Great.
CALEB CLUFF:
We as separate communities have had to fight our way. We have had that which, at times, I dare say, has degenerated into antagonism, naturally enough. But on the whole I do not believe that the thoughtful men of Victoria have ever lost sight of the good qualities of the men of New South Wales. I do not believe that the people of the mother colony, and we have many men and women in the second and third generation born on this soil, have ever lost their admiration of the legitimate enterprise and the fine emulation of the people of Victoria. What may be said of Victoria may be said of Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and maybe said of our sister New Zealand if she will condescend to permit us to call her 'sister'. Is there a man living in any part of Australasia who'll say it would be to the advantage of the whole that we should remain disunited?
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
That's an excerpt from Henry Parkes' speech delivered to Queens Hall, Melbourne, before 400 guests at the grand banquet at the federation conference in 1890. And we're looking at great rural speeches of Australia. And, of course, that Melbourne oration had its birth in Tenterfield in New South Wales. My guest is historian and author Ken Halliday, who has written a book called Parkes' Federation Calls To The people. And, Ken, I guess underlying this whole campaign through the public oration of Henry Parkes was that he was a firm believer in free trade between the states.
KEN HALLIDAY:
That was certainly an overriding factor. And it's interesting, that Melbourne address, between the Tenterfield and the Melbourne address, some nine months or so, Parkes actually delivered 15 federation addresses.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
Good God.
KEN HALLIDAY:
Yeah, on federation. Which is quite remarkable.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
So he had it down pat by the time he got to Melbourne?
KEN HALLIDAY:
Well, absolutely, absolutely. But the tariffs was one of the main issues and I guess the three main issues of the whole… Coming from the Tenterfield speech and subsequent to that, as well, was defence, which Parkes said was the one great thing to be accomplished with the massing together of the colonies' military forces. And this was very important in the rural areas because Tenterfield, like most rural areas at the time, were mounting their defence of the nation through the Mounted Rifles and the Light Horse, which had only kicked off in the early 1880s. So they were all aware of the need for defence and also that it should be unified and not among the colonies.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
So there is military and trade significance there?
KEN HALLIDAY:
And trade was very important, particularly in the border regions like here and Corowa and so on. The tariff was actually killing, or stifling, anyway, trade. And, of course, the other issue was the rail system and Parkes' call for a uniformed rail gauge.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
Which took so long to complete. It took a long time. But did the man who originated public significance for federation, the public outcry on it, did he live to see federation?
KEN HALLIDAY: No, unfortunately. Henry Parkes died in 1896, so it was just a little short of it. Which was very unfortunate, because not only Parkes… I think Parkes would have been very keen to become the first prime minister of Australia, even though age would have been against him at that stage.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
I have a feeling that he would have done his best to put that aside and just travelled forward on that.
KEN HALLIDAY:
Well, I don't think age was a thing that ever worried him. He was keen to do that, yes. In fact, back in Parkes' book of poems that he wrote round about the time of the Tenterfield Oration, Fragmentary Thoughts, Lord Tennyson wrote in his copy of the book that he hoped the day would come when Henry Parkes would be the prime minister of Australia.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
Well, Ken, thank you for some fascinating insights into one of the great figures of Australian politics and history. Thank you for joining us, as well.
KEN HALLIDAY:
You're welcome, Michael.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE:
Historian and author from Tenterfield, Ken Halliday who's written a book, Parkes' Federation Calls To The People, the federation campaign that began in Tenterfield in New South Wales.