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  WHEREAS, the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God, have agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and under the Constitution hereby established; and WHEREAS, it is expedient to provide for the admission into the Commonwealth of other Australasian Colonies and possessions of the Queen: BE IT, THEREFORE, ENACTED
by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and
consent
of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present
Parliament
assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
This Act may be cited as
the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act.
The provisions of this Act
referring to the Queen shall extend to Her Majesty's heirs and
successors
in the sovereignty of the United Kingdom.
It shall be lawful for the
Queen, with the advice of the Privy Council, to declare by
proclamation*
that, on and after a day therein appointed, not being later than one
year
after the passing of this Act, the people of New South Wales, Victoria,
South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, and also, if Her Majesty is
satisfied that the people of Western Australia have agreed thereto, of
Western Australia, shall be united in a Federal Commonwealth under the
name of the Commonwealth of Australia. But the Queen may, at any time
after
the proclamation, appoint a Governor-General for the Commonwealth.
The Commonwealth shall be
established, and the Constitution of the Commonwealth shall take
effect,
on and after the day so appointed. But the Parliaments of the several
colonies
may at any time after the passing of this Act make any such laws, to
come
into operation on the day so appointed, as they might have made if the
Constitution had taken effect at the passing of this Act.
This Act, and all laws made
by the Parliament of the Commonwealth under the Constitution, shall be
binding on the courts, judges, and people of every State and of every
part
of the Commonwealth, notwithstanding anything in the laws of any State;
and the laws of the Commonwealth shall be in force on all British
ships,
the Queen's ships of war excepted, whose first port of clearance and
whose
port of destination are in the Commonwealth.
"The Commonwealth" shall mean the Commonwealth of Australia as established under this Act. "The States" shall mean such of the colonies of New South Wales, New Zealand, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, and South Australia, including the northern territory of South Australia, as for the time being are parts of the Commonwealth, and such colonies or territories as may be admitted into or established by the Commonwealth as States; and each of such parts of the Commonwealth shall be called "a State." "Original States" shall mean
such States as are parts of the Commonwealth at its establishment.
The Federal Council of Australasia
Act, 1885, is hereby repealed, but so as not to affect any laws passed
by the Federal Council of Australasia and in force at the establishment
of the Commonwealth. Any such law may be repealed as to any State by
the
Parliament of the Commonwealth, or as to any colony not being a State
by
the Parliament thereof.
After the passing of this
Act the Colonial Boundaries Act, 1895, shall not apply to any colony
which
becomes a State of the Commonwealth; but the Commonwealth shall be
taken
to be a self-governing colony for the purposes of that Act.
The Constitution of the Commonwealth
shall be as follows:
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