In the referendums of 1898 and 1900 Australians voted in favour
of forming a Federal system of Government to look after the common
interests of post, telegraph, quarantine, defence and immigration
etc. Strong feelings for a White Australia had surfaced. Dispossessed
aboriginals had no voting rights. At the first general elections
in 1901, Liberal Protectionists, Labor and the Conservative Free
Trader Parties all agreed that a predominantly white society should
exist in Australia. Australian workers were convinced that the use
of non-European labour threatened their standard of living and privileges.
Hence in 1901 the Federal Immigration Restriction Act prohibiting
Asiatic and all other non-European immigration was passed. The Kanaka
labourers on the Queensland sugarfields were deported. In 1903 the
Commonwealth Naturalization Act restricted non-Europeans and Aboriginals
from obtaining citizenship.
AUSTRALIAN NATIVES ASSOCIATION
In this climate of Nationalism and political activity, local branches
of the Australian Natives Association (ANA) were established in
Preston-1886 and Northcote-1900. At the Commercial Hotel in 1891
a branch of the Political Progressive Labor League was formed, one
of the forerunners of the Australian Labor Party.
THE WOMENS SUFFRAGE LEAGUE - NORTHCOTE
After many years of being excluded from almost every type of community
activity except the charitable, women started to get their own organizations.
In 1895 Mrs C.M. Burdett became secretay of The Women’s Suffrage
League - Northcote Branch and campaigned for voting rights. Victorian
women obtained the right to vote federally in 1903 and in Victoria
in 1908. However the Adult Suffrage Act in Victoria was delayed
until after the December 1908 elections. Women also started branches
of Friendly Societies, Lodges and in 1904, the Northcote branch
of the Australian Women’s Association, sister organisation
to the Australian Natives Association.
The Northcote Council was surprised to learn that as many as 791
of Northcote’s ratepayers in 1903 were women-more than 1 in
9.
The Northcote Side of the River by Andrew Lemon
N.B. - Victorian women were not granted the right to stand for
election to the Legislative Assembly until 1923.
POPULATION AND TRANSPORT
NORTHCOTE AND PRESTON
Meanwhile the population in Northcote and Preston continued to grow
on the promise of improving transport. In the late 1800s the Cable
tram ran from Bourke Street Melbourne along Gertrude, Smith &
High Streets linking the City, Collingwood, Clifton Hill, Northcote
& Thornbury. By 1904 a direct rail line had cut travel time
between Preston & the City to a record 24 minutes. In 1912 the
Fitzroy, Northcote & Preston Tramways Trust was formed. By 1920
another tram line had opened. Modern electric trams departed from
the Cable Tram terminus in Nth Fitzroy & tracked north along
St Georges Road. One branch turning left at Miller St-Gilbert Rd
and the other turning right to connect Plenty Rd to Tyler St. With
improved transport Northcote & Preston grew rapidly. Northcote
was proclaimed a city on the 13th of March 1914. Preston followed
12 years later in 1926 with a population that had grown to 22,000.
