When did Sydney become the capital of New South Wales?
History of Sydney
From 1788 to 1900 Sydney was the capital of the British colony of New South Wales. An elected city council was established in 1840. In 1900, Sydney became a state capital, when New South Wales voted to join the Australian Federation. Sydney today is Australia's largest city and a major international capital of culture and finance. The city has played host to many international events, including the 2000 Summer Olympics.
History of the Australian Capital Territory
In 1898, a referendum on a proposed Constitution was held in four of the colonies – New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. Although the referendum achieved a majority in all four colonies, the New South Wales referendum failed to gain the minimum number of votes needed for the bill to pass. Following this result, a meeting of the four Premiers in 1898 heard from George Reid, the Premier of New South Wales, who argued that locating the future capital in New South Wales would be sufficient to ensure the passage of the Bill. This was accepted by the other three Premiers, and the proposed Australian Constitution was modified so that Section 125 specified that the national capital must be "within the state of New South Wales". However, they also added the condition that it must be situated no less than from Sydney. In addition, if the bill passed, Melbourne would be the interim seat of government (but not referred to as the "capital") until a location for the new capital had been determined. The 1899 referendum on this revised bill was successful, passing with sufficient numbers.
Nevertheless, this left open the question of where to locate the capital. Initially the Bombala district in the far south of NSW was proposed, to which southern Monaro, (which incorporated Bombala), Orange and Yass were soon added. The NSW Premier, John See, offered to provide any of the three recommended sites as a future capital territory. Edmund Barton, the first Prime Minister of the new Federal Government, added another four sites to this list: Albury, Tamworth, Armidale and Tumut, and members of the new government toured the various sites in 1902. The tour proved inconclusive, and upon their return the members decided to refer the problem to a Royal Commission, with the Minister for Home Affairs, William Lyne, pushing for Tumut or Albury as he preferred a site in his electorate. Subsequently, the Commission presented its report to Parliament in 1903, recommending the sites of Albury, Tumut and Orange, in that order. However, there continued to be problems, as the House of Representatives backed the Tumut option, while the Senate preferred the town of Bombala. As a result of this disagreement the bill lapsed, and it was left to the second Parliament to choose a location for the capital.