Federation Architecture

Federation architecture is the architectural style that prevailed in Australia from around 1890 to 1915, named for the Federation of Australia on 1 January 1901, when the British colonies of Australia united as the Commonwealth of Australia. The style drew on the Queen Anne and Edwardian styles of the United Kingdom together with the Arts and Crafts movement, and is expressed mainly in residential cottages, typically built in deep red or dark brown brick with asymmetric gables, white painted window frames, decorative timber verandas, terracotta roof tiles with ornamented gables and finials, tall chimneys, fretwork, decorative leadlight windows and circular bullseye windows. Its decoration frequently drew on distinctly Australian motifs, including the New South Wales waratah, the flannel flower and the Queensland firewheel tree alongside animal figures such as the kangaroo, kookaburra and lyrebird, and while it was primarily a domestic style it was occasionally applied to non-residential buildings, including the Rotunda Hospital in Perth.