Federation

The colonies came together in 1901 to form the Commonwealth of Australia. Early legislation in the new parliament reflected matters of national interest such as immigration, taxes and the postal system.

Topics

A topic is a collection of records with interpretation and inquiry questions. Each topic is aligned to the Australian Curriculum and focuses on an aspect of Australian history.

Records

Each record focuses on a single item from the National Archives' collection. Some records contain extra information to help you interpret them.