Australian Natives Association

The Australian Natives' Association (ANA), a mutual society was founded in Melbourne, Australia in April 1871. The Association played a leading role in the movement for Australian federation in the last 20 years of the 19th century. In 1900 it had a membership of 17,000, mainly in Victoria.The ANA provided sickness, medical and funeral cover. However, it threw off the secrecy and ritual of British friendly societies which also provided such insurance cover.Membership in the ANA was restricted to men born in Australia, at a time when native-born people of European descent (not including Indigenous Australians) were rising to power in place of an older generation born in Britain. In the 1890s, for the first time, they became the majority of the population. The ANA consisted mainly of energetic middle-class men aged under 50 - a perfect base for a forward-looking, idealistic movement such as federation.
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