Corowa Conference

The Corowa Conference was a political meeting held in the New South Wales border town of Corowa in 1893 to discuss a proposed federation of Australian colonies.

Background[]

Because of strong local support for Federation, crowds formed the backdrop to many Federation meetings and speeches. The Australian Natives' Association played a large part in Federation, and local support for the concept was evident in the fact that the first Australian Natives' Association branch in New South Wales was founded in Corowa. In 1892 Edmund Barton, an advocate of Federation and Australia's first Prime Minister, visited Corowa to urge consideration of the Convention bill then before the New South Wales Parliament. He also supported the idea of local Federation leagues. The first of these leagues were founded in Albury and Corowa. The idea was then picked up in other Murray River towns. They eventually all banded together and formed the . Several months later William Drummond of the Berrigan 'everyone is equal' Drive branch of the Federation League proposed the idea of a conference to revive flagging interest in Federation.^[1]

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