Summary

Chromolithograph certificate presented to outgoing President of the Hawthorn Branch of the Australian Natives' Association, Mr P. J. Bennett. Mr Bennett served from November 1900 to May 1901, the month in which the opening of the first Federal Parliament of Australia was officially opened in the (Royal) Exhibition Building, Melbourne.

The Australian Natives' Association was established in Melbourne in 1871 as a non-partisan and non-sectarian friendly society for Australian-born, white men seeking to shape Australia's nationhood and identity. The ANA was a strong advocate for Federation and became an advocate for White Australia. It was a staunch supporter of trade protection and immigration restriction, and Prime Minister Alfred Deakin was a member.

Physical Description

Full colour, chromolithographic certificate. A series of vignettes decorate the edges of the frame, clockwise from upper left hand corner: a steam fueled sailing ship, a steam train, the Australian Coat-of-Arms, farm animals, a man driving a horse-drawn plow, a cornucopia of fruit, a man working down a mine, smoking chimneys of progress, a spray of wattle and gum, bundles of hay on a dock, a grain factory, a grand city building, and a weaving loom. At the centre of the images of modern Australia is a golden map of the continent, with a central oval plaque printed with the award details.

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