Sir Henry Parkes

Sir Henry Parkes (born May 27, 1815, Stoneleigh, Warwickshire, England—died April 27, 1896, Sydney, Australia) was a dominant political figure in Australia during the second half of the 19th century, often called the father of Australian federation. He served five terms as premier of New South Wales between 1872 and 1891.

Parkes became politically prominent in 1849 as a spokesman for ending the transportation of convicts to Australia from England. The following year he launched the Empire, a newspaper he ran until 1858 and through which he campaigned for fully representative government. He first held public office in 1854 and served almost without interruption as a representative and often as a minister or premier until 1894.

Parkes’s educational work resulted in the Public Schools Act of 1866 and the Public Instruction Act of 1880, which introduced compulsory free education and severed connections between the church and the public schools. In his ministries between 1872 and 1887 he established New South Wales as a free-trade colony. He was knighted in 1877. In his fourth administration (1887–89) he carried through measures to improve railways and public works and to limit Chinese immigration.

Parkes first spoke for federation in 1867 and later presided over the National Australasian Convention in 1891. He withdrew support from the resulting Commonwealth of Australia Bill, however, and federation was postponed until 1901. After the elections of 1891 Parkes lost his position of political leadership. His autobiography, Fifty Years in the Making of Australian History, appeared in 1892.