Federation Period 1890-1915

During the 1890's there was the beginnings of a nationalist tendency in Australia. Australia was in a severe drought on the eastern areas but after 100 years as a colony the European Australians were beginning to take pride in what they had achieved. Federation of the dissparate states was to happen on January 1st 1901 when Australia would be proclaimed the Commonwealth of Australia.

Federation style was an ecclectic mix of styles, shapes, and materials. Australian Federation style borrowed ideas from the whymsical Queen Anne style of architecture from England and the US. The style featured turrets, towers, parapeted gables, symmetry and assymetry, vertical scale to windows and doors, steep roofs, roof trims, and including the Australian verandah. Examples of Federation Period buildings included the Queen Victoria building in Sydney designed by George McRae architect 1893-1898, Land Titles Office, Queens Sq Sydney by W.L.Vernon  architect1908,  St Brigid's Roman Catholic Church, Red Hill Brisbane designed by Robin Dods architect 1912-14, and St Carthage's Roman Catholic Cathedral, Lismore NSW, 1892-1906 design attributed to Wardell and Denning architects.

This style was later copied in the later part of the twentieth century as a reaction against a perceived impersonal modernism. The copying of the style was a desire for a simpler time in Australian life and detailing which was not apparent in some of the contemporary modernist buildings. The re-creation of Federation Style buildings however was later seen to be difficult thing to accurately do and many attempts were a mix of modern and traditional materials which did not achieve the original aim.