 In the early 1890s , for mainly patriotic reasons , the Australian Natives ' Association helped establish the Federation League , a society dedicated to the creation of a federal nation . Following a series of addresses by the future Prime Minister , Edmund Barton to large crowds , some 15 League branches were established in the towns along the southern border . One of these towns , Corowa , was the location for the first conference of the Australian Federation League in 1893 . At this conference , Dr John Quick , a delegate from Bendigo , proposed a resolution calling for the colonial legislatures to pass an act providing for the election of representatives to a convention to develop a federal constitution . This has been seen as the turning point in the push for Federation . The momentum generated from this point lead to a series of conventions and elections and finally , the inauguration of a federal constitution on 1 January 1901 . 
