A change in wind direction overnight made things much more comfortable in Port Macquarie today, but no easier for the firefighters struggling to contain the bush fires all around. We can still see smoke billowing around, but the south easterly breeze is carrying it away from Port Macquarie. So, we weren’t going anywhere today and had a quiet day around the town.
We started by heading to the Historical Museum and spent an interesting couple of hours browsing around there. One exhibition concerned Edmund Barton who was a local MP for the seat of Hastings and Macleay. He was persuaded to sit for the seat in 1898 and became the Leader of the Opposition in NSW when he won the seat with a healthy majority. He pressured the Premier to reverse his position on Federation (something which had been proposed for many years previously) as it was New South Wales which was the only state holding out against federation. Various amendments were made to the proposed federation bill. These amendments were known as the “Braddon Clause“. They allowed for the return of customs revenue to the states for ten years and it was also agreed that the new federal capital was to be built in New South Wales provided it was at least a hundred miles (160 km) from Sydney. Hence ….. Canberra as the capital of the Federation and not Sydney. Isn’t compromise a wonderful thing …. now there’s a thought ….. This got a majority vote in all states and Barton led a successful delegation to London to seek approval for the draft constitution from the Queen. On 17th September 1900 she declared that the Commonwealth of Australia would come into being on January 1st 1901 ….. and so it did …. with Edmund Barton as the first Prime Minister.
From there we wandered around the beaches and would have gone to the Maritime Museum (!), but it was closed – a shortage of staff due to the bush fires.
