Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Sir Henry Parkes (1815–1896) was an Australian statesman often called the 'Father of Federation'. He was born in Warwickshire, England and emigrated to New South Wales in 1839. He was premier of the colony of New South Wales five times between 1872 and 1891. He was knighted in 1877. He was first elected to the Legislative Council in 1854 and then the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1856 at the time New South Wales became self governing. His image appears on the Australian $5 note. The suburb of Parkes in Canberra is named after him. The township of Parkes in central New South Wales is also named after him. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.