On 1 January 1901, an estimated one million people gathered in the streets, parks and halls of Australia's cities and rural towns to take part in the celebrations that marked the birth of the nation. One Destiny! recreates the events in their entirety - the pageants and the parades, the rhetoric and the excitement - and looks behind the events to the people and processes that shaped the nation. Roslyn Russell and Philip Chubb examine the many issues that confronted the diverse and widespread settlements in the closing decades of the nineteenth century in a meticulously researched and illustrated book. The creation of the nation did not come quickly or easily, but in the end Australia was a nation brought into being peacefully - a triumph that sets us apart from many other nations and makes this a story especially worth telling. Fascinating and compelling, One Destiny! is a rich source of information about colonial life in the nineteenth century and the making of the Australian nation.