SYDNEY -- Egalitarianism has always ruled here, ever since the first white settlers arrived in Sydney Cove from their London jails in 1788. One of the first convicts off the boat became chief magistrate and another chief architect. Jack is not only as good as his master; here he considers himself a damn side better. Hence a "tall poppy" syndrome that cuts the heads off even the likes of early Prime Ministers Edmund Barton and Alfred Deakin.
When Queen Victoria, having graciously consented to the colonial wish, sent Lord Louis Hope to swear in Barton's first ministry, Sydney's nationalist journal, The Bulletin, described his lordship as "puny and wan." Needless to add, Hope, the first governor general, is another of the forgotten heroes.
Earlier, The Bulletin had been fanning flickering flames of republicanism within the far-flung outpost of the British Empire. Jingoism was never an Australian trait, then or now, so rabid nationalism got short shrift in the constitution.