ABSTRACT
The Commonwealth of Australia is an integrative federation formed in 1901 through the ‘coming together’ of six mutually independent self-governing colonies under the ultimate authority of the British Parliament. The general principle was that each State Parliament would continue to have the power to determine the content of its own Constitution and to legislate as it deemed fit. The transformation of the Australian colonies from penal settlements to self-governing political communities was largely a result of advocacy by the governments and peoples of the colonies themselves. The combined effect of these provisions was to guarantee to the states a very high degree of constitutional autonomy. The constitutional status of the Australian states is underscored when they are compared with the position of the territories. The power of the State Parliaments to determine the content of their own constitutions is in principle unlimited as to subject matter.
