The Charter of Justice 13 October 1823 (UK) establishes a system of justice for Van Diemen's Land and provides for the appointment of John Lewes Pedder to preside over it as Chief Justice. The New South Wales Act 1823 (UK) authorises the establishment of a legislative council in New South Wales and Australia's first supreme courts in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, as well as providing for Van Diemen's Land to become a separate colony. The Legislative Council conducts its first meeting in August 1824. These new laws follow criticisms of the administration and justice system in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land by Commissioner John Thomas Bigge.

At a public meeting in Sydney, colonists demand a government whereby the elected representatives of the colony are accountable to parliament and ultimately to the people. This a first step towards colonial independence from British authority.

At a public meeting in Sydney, Henry McDermott angers anti-republicans when he claims that the 'rights of man' entitle all men to be enfranchised, and accuses the colony's conservative politicians of marginalising skilled workers. The Australian newspaper devotes an editorial to the dangers of republicanism promoted by Thomas Paine and Voltaire, and represented in the French republic — a 'nation which got drunk with blood to vomit crime'.

The New South Wales Constitution Act 1842 (UK) creates Australia’s first semi-representative legislature and lays the groundwork for the parliamentary system. It does not grant full responsible government, but it enables the first election to be held for the two-thirds elected NSW Legislative Council. Ex-convicts are eligible to vote and stand.

Voting begins in the first election for the NSW Legislative Council. Created by the New South Wales Constitution Act 1842 (UK), the Council is Australia’s first semi-representative legislature and lays the groundwork for the parliamentary system. It does not grant full responsible government, but it enables the first election to be held for the two-thirds elected NSW Legislative Council. Ex-convicts are eligible to vote and stand.

With the passing of the Australian Colonies Government Act 1850 New South Wales receives a new constitution providing for an elected lower house in a bicameral legislature. Sir Charles FitzRoy, who was Governor of New South Wales at the time, becomes Governor of New South Wales, Van Diemen’s Land, South Australia and Victoria, and Governor-General of all Australian possessions including Western Australia.

John Dunmore Lang, with aid from Henry Parkes, James Wilshire and other radicals, establishes the Australian League to encourage a sense of national identity, to resist any further convict transportation and to promote, by moral means exclusively, the entire freedom of the Australian colonies and their incorporation into one political federation. The League collapses after two meetings.

In a series of lectures in Sydney, John Dunmore Lang promotes republicanism, including the end of convict transportation, and independence and federation for the Australian colonies. He promotes his ideas in The Coming Event; Or, the United Provinces of Australia published in 1850, and Freedom and Independence for the Golden Lands of Australia published in 1852.

From the 1840s the British Government introduces laws that allow for the election of municipal councils in each colony, then partially elected legislative councils. They invite each legislative council to draft constitutions that will give each colony representative self-government and their own parliament. The Australian Colonies Government Act 1850 (formerly Act for the Better Government of Her Majesty’s Australian Colonies) recognises the colonists’ desire for self-government and provides for a similar limited self-government in South Australia and Van Diemen’s Land.

The first of Rev. John West’s 16 articles about a federation of the Australian colonies is published in The Sydney Morning Herald. West, a Congregational minister, journalist and leader of the anti-transportation movement in Van Diemens Land, becomes an influential advocate for federation. He is convinced the colonies must form a federal union if they are to have any influence in London. West publishes his articles under the pseudonym John Adams.

A meeting of miners is held at Bakery Hill on the Ballarat goldfields, and the Ballarat Reform League is formed with a former British Chartist, JB Humffray, as secretary. George Black (also a Chartist), Peter Lalor, Frederic Vern, Raffaello Carboni and Timothy Hayes are leading members. The aims of the League are similar to those of the Chartists — manhood suffrage, voting by ballot, annual parliaments and payment of members. In addition, they seek the abolition of the licensing system, reforms in the administration of the goldfields, and a revision of laws relating to Crown land.

On 3 December a group of miners led by Peter Lalor clash with government troops over the system of mining licences on the Ballarat goldfields in Victoria. The 13 miners brought to trial for high treason are found not guilty by a jury. In the aftermath of the Rebellion, the government introduces a system of annual licensing called the Miner’s Right. It is hailed as a watershed in Australian democracy, replacing the hated monthly licensing system and effectively giving the right to vote to those holding a Miner’s Right. In the following year an eyewitness account of the Rebellion is published by Raffaello Carboni.

Between 1855 and 1857, the constitutions of New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania are drawn up by the respective legislative councils and approved by the British Parliament. Bicameral parliaments (based on two legislative chambers) are established.

The Australian colonies become self-governing — all adult (21 years and over) male British subjects are entitled to vote in South Australia from 1856, in Victoria from 1857, New South Wales from 1858, and Tasmania from 1896. This includes Indigenous men, although they are not encouraged to enrol. Queensland and Western Australia introduce responsible government in 1890 but deny Indigenous people the vote.

Adult male (including Indigenous) suffrage, a secret ballot and no property qualification for Members of the House of Assembly are some of the South Australian Constitution’s decrees, making it one of the most democratic in the world at the time.

Victoria becomes the first of the Australian colonies to introduce payment of Members of Parliament. This is one of the reforms sought by supporters of the Chartist Movement, the popular British reform movement of the 1840s that influenced the evolution of democracy in the Australian colonies. Until the Act is passed in 1870, only the ministers and presiding officers of the parliament are paid. Democratic reformers argue that this works against popular representation. Although all men can vote, only wealthy men can afford to sit in parliament. Payments are resisted by the conservative Legislative Council, and are initially introduced for a three-year trial period.

A branch of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union is established in Sydney, and becomes the first mass organisation of women in Australia. It was founded in the American West in 1874. The organisation fights for a range of social reforms, advocating temperance and actively supporting Australian Federation. It claims 7400 members by 1894, and is a key supporter of women's suffrage in Australia.

The Federation movement gathers momentum when Henry Parkes writes to other colonial premiers and proposes a meeting to develop a federal constitution. In the same year he delivers his Federation speech, urging colonial governments ‘to unite and create a great National Government for all Australia’.

The landmark Australasian Federation Conference, held in Melbourne, unites the 13 leaders of all colonial and New Zealand governments, who debate the union of the colonies and a national convention to consider a federal constitution.

Western Australia is the last of the Australian colonies to become self-governing.

At the Australasian Federation Conference held in Melbourne from 6 to 14 February 1890, leading politicians from the six Australian colonies and New Zealand agree on the concept of ‘an early union under the crown’ and commit themselves to persuading their governments to send delegates to a convention that would ‘consider and report’ on a scheme for a federal constitution. The National Australasian Convention of 1891 meets in Sydney from 2 March to 9 April, but does not debate whether the colonies should federate but how. They are concerned with finding a draft constitution that they can take back to their legislatures for discussion and endorsement. When the Australasian Federal Convention meets in Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne in 1897 and early 1898, the delegates modify the draft produced in 1891. The Australian Constitution is subsequently contained in the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Bill, which is endorsed by the voters of each Australian colony at referendums in 1898, 1899 and 1900, passed by the British Parliament and given Royal Assent on 9 July 1900.

Queensland is the first state to introduce preferential voting, a system later adopted by other states and the federal parliament in 1918.

A conference at Corowa is hailed as the first significant expression of community support for Federation outside the major cities. It is organised in response to growing resentment of inter-colonial tariffs in the Riverina. It leads to a decision by premiers in 1895 to enact legislation providing for the election of representatives to a federal convention, where they will adopt a Bill for a federal constitution to be put to a referendum held in 1898.

Tasmanians are granted proportional representation in the Legislative Assembly seats of Hobart and Launceston, followed by the whole state in 1907. Andrew Inglis Clark, Tasmania’s Attorney General, seeks to reform the colony’s electoral system during the 1890s. Clark was a promoter of the single transferable vote.

Justice HB Higgins proposes a power to make laws with respect to ‘conciliation and arbitration for the prevention and settlement of industrial disputes extending beyond the limits of any one State’. The proposal is finally accepted at the 1898 Convention, providing the basis for the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904.

The Australian Constitution is endorsed by the voters of each Australian colony at referendums in 1898, 1899 and 1900, passed by the British Parliament and given Royal Assent on 9 July 1900. About 45.4 per cent of electors in four colonies (Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales and South Australia) vote at the 1898 poll, increasing to 60.71 per cent of eligible voters in all six colonies at the 1899 poll. The first draft of the Australian Constitution is usually attributed to Sir Samuel Griffith, although some argue that Griffith rewrote Andrew Inglis Clark’s version.

As the Western Australian Government wavers over its support for Federation, residents on the goldfields present a petition to the Queen via the Western Australian Governor, arguing the case for their region’s separation from the Western Australian colony. The other colonies use the petition to pressure the Western Australian Government to support Federation.

The first conference of the Women’s Progressive Leagues is held in Melbourne. A branch of the United Council for Woman Suffrage, the Leagues aim to secure civil and political rights for women equal to those of men, the general emancipation and advancement of women, and the right for women to enter architectural courses and proposed state agricultural colleges. General reforms include prison and factory legislation, health and the establishment of children’s courts. They run discussion courses on cookery, literature and health, conduct house-to-house canvassing, deputations, petitioning and public meetings, and publish suffrage literature. By the end of 1900, there are 32 societies in the Leagues, with strong connections with the labour movement.

On 25 June Edmund Barton communicates to Sir William Lyne that Commonwealth of Australia bill read thrice House of Commons. Cheers. Please inform other governments. The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 is passed by the British Parliament on 5 July and Queen Victoria gives her Royal Assent to the Act on 9 July, proclaiming that the Commonwealth of Australia comprising all six colonies will come into existence on 1 January 1901. The choice of the name 'Commonwealth of Australia' isinfluenced by James Bryce's The American Commonwealth, the 'bible' of the founding fathers. However, Queen Victoria is uneasy with the term Commonwealth, mindful of its association with Oliver Cromwell's republican government established after the English Civil Wars in the 17th century and the execution of her ancestor King Charles I in 1649. A copy of the Act and the pen, inkstand and table used are presented to the delegates. An original copy of the Act, returned to Australia in 1988, is displayed at the National Archives of Australia.

On 31 July, Western Australia is the last colony to vote yes in a referendum to determine whether it should become part of the Federation.