2-716-600 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'The Federation of Australia, 1901: The Ceremony of Signing the Oath by Lord Hopetoun at Sydney on New Year's Day', 1901. John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun (1860-1908), the first Governor-General of Australia, officiates at the Inauguration of the Commonwealth of Australia at Centennial Park, Sydney. (The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, and Western Australia, agreed to unite and form the Commonwealth of Australia). From "The Illustrated London News Record of the Glorious Reign of Queen Victoria 1837-1901: The Life and Accession of King Edward VII. and the Life of Queen Alexandra". [London, 1901]