Australian Natives' Association
The Australian Natives' Association (ANA) was a mutual society founded in Melbourne, Australia in April 1871 as the Victorian Natives' Association. At the time its membership was restricted to white men born in Australia. The organisation had 60,000 members at its peak, and influential lobbying power, campaigning against non-white immigration and promoting federation and the White Australia policy. The organisation's last remaining chapter closed in 2007.
History
In 1872 it voted to extend membership to men born in the other Australian colonies and changed its name at the same time.[1][2] The Association played a leading role in the movement for Australian federation in the last 20 years of the 19th century. In 1900 it had a membership of 17,000, mainly in Victoria.
The ANA provided sickness, medical and funeral cover. Membership in the ANA was restricted to men born in Australia, at a time when Australian-born people of European descent (not including Indigenous Australians) were rising to power in place of an older generation born in Britain. In the 1890s, for the first time, they became the majority of the population. The ANA consisted mainly of middle-class men aged under 50.
The organisation received criticism for their name, including from Aboriginal leader and activist William Cooper over the appropriation of the term 'native'.[5]
Federation
In 1880 the ANA committed itself to the federation of the Australian colonies, and provided much of the organisational and financial support for the Federation Leagues which led the campaign, particularly in Victoria. It avoided party politics, but they soon adopted the rising liberal politician and ANA member Alfred Deakin[6] as their candidate for leadership of the federal movement.[citation needed]
In 1891, when the Victorian Parliament was considering the federation bill, the ANA that organised public meetings around the colony to rally support for the bill, many of them addressed by Deakin. The ANA continued to campaign following the failure of the 1891 bill. When the movement revived after 1897, the ANA campaigned for the referendums to approve the proposed constitution. With federation achieved in 1901, the ANA withdrew from political activity, although it continued other activities such as promoting the observance of Australia Day. Other nationalistic issues supported by the ANA included afforestation, an Australian-made goods policy, water conservation, the celebration of 'proper and meaningful' citizenship ceremonies following the increased levels of migration after World War II, and the adoption of the wattle as the national floral emblem in 1912.[citation needed]
White Australia policy
Alongside the Returned and Services League, the ANA was one of the last Australian pressure groups to support the White Australia Policy. While this policy was wound down in the decades after the Second World War and totally abolished by 1970, a few members continued to support it until the 1970s.
Later years
The ANA continued to operate a private health fund, a building society, general insurance company and small-scale life insurance and fund management activities. In 1993, it merged those operations with Manchester Unity IOOF of Victoria to create Australian Unity, the largest friendly society in Australia by number of members.
In 2007, the only remaining chapter of the ANA closed down; the building owned by the chapter was sold and the proceeds distributed among the groups remaining 320 members.[7]
Members
- Michael Cavanagh, Western Australian architect
- James Hume Cook, MP for Bourke
- Edmund Barton, 1st Prime Minister of Australia[8]
- Alfred Deakin, 2nd Prime Minister of Australia
- George Turner, 18th Premier of Victoria, 1st Treasurer of Australia
- Robert Menzies, 12th Prime Minister of Australia [9]
- Frank Forde, 15th Prime Minister of Australia
- William Charles Costin, Clerk of the Queensland Legislative Council
- John Quick, MP for Bendigo
- T. J. Ryan, 19th Premier of Queensland
- Albert Blakey, Labor Senator for Victoria
- Bert Hoare, Labor Senator for South Australia
- James Doland, Member of the Western Australian Legislative Council
- George Wise, MP for Gippsland
- Thomas Glass, MP for Bendigo East
- William Anderson, Member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly
- William Watt, 24th Premier of Victoria
- Timothy Donovan, Labor member of the Queensland Legislative Council
References
- ^ "Public Notices". The Argus. National Library of Australia (Trove Australia). 16 May 1871. Retrieved 21 December 2012.
- ^ "News". The Argus. National Library of Australia (Trove Australia). 27 April 1872. Retrieved 21 December 2012.
- ^ Design, UBC Web. "Australian Natives Association Centenary - Monument Australia". monumentaustralia.org.au. Archived from the original on 1 July 2017. Retrieved 22 October 2017.
- ^ See Museum Victoria description Archived 5 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Broome, Richard (2005). Aboriginal Victorians: A History since 1800. Sydney: Allen and Unwin. p. 306.
- ^ "The Return Of Mr. Alfred Deakin". The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954). Melbourne, Vic.: National Library of Australia. 12 July 1887. p. 5. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
- ^ White natives fold their tent, (24 February 2007), Post (Western Australia)
- ^ Design, UBC Web. "Australian Natives Association Centenary – Monument Australia". monumentaustralia.org.au. Archived from the original on 1 July 2017. Retrieved 22 October 2017.
- ^ Menadue, J. E. A Centenary History of the Australian Natives Association. Melbourne: Horticulture Press Pty Ltd. p. 387.