Colonial self-government was a brief but significant phase in Australia’s history. This chapter explores how, why, and when various classes of settlers came to seek self-government and traces the shifts in British government approaches to colonial governance. When Britain eventually granted self-government to most Australian colonies in the 1850s and Western Australia in 1890, the six Australian colonies implemented it very differently. With some colonies more democratic and progressive than others, self-government had varying consequences for the class and gender relations within the settler communities that were rapidly expanding and consolidating in the second half of the nineteenth century.

We also focus on the implications of colonial self-government for Aboriginal people, who throughout its operation experienced continuing dispossession, loss of self-determination, and population decline. We consider the long history of Aboriginal assertions of rights against a political system that systematically failed to recognise their sovereignty, give them a parliamentary voice, or acknowledge the fact and consequences of their violent dispossession.