Sir Edmund "Toby" Barton was an Australian politician, barrister and jurist who served as the first prime minister of Australia from 1901 to 1903. He held office as the leader of the Protectionist Par
Official portrait, 1902
Barton as Speaker of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
Photo in 1898 of the future 1st prime minister of Australia Edmund Barton aged 49 and 2nd prime minister of Australia Alfred Deakin
The White Australia policy was a set of racial policies that aimed to forbid people of non-European ethnic origins – Asians and Pacific Islanders – from immigrating to Australia, in order to create a
Edmund Barton
…including the Australian Defence Force and the Commonwealth Public Service. It introduced nation-wide women's suffrage, and laid the foundations of the White Australia policy with the Immigration Restriction Act 1901. Barton left politics in 1903 to become one of the three founding members of the High Court, which his…
Camp Hill (Lambing Flat) at time of the riots, 1860–61. Now the town of Young, New South Wales
Eight-hour day march c. 1900, outside Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne
"Keep Australia White" poster used during the 1917 conscription referendum. The "No" campaign claimed that conscripted soldiers sent overseas would be replaced by non-white labour.
Dutch migrants arriving in Australia in 1954. Australia embarked upon a massive immigration programme following the Second World War and gradually dismantled the preferential treatment afforded to British migrants.