It was called the most remarkable show of naval might in history and "Affable Alfred" Deakin, Australia's prime minister, arrived by train from Melbourne a day early, eager to see how Sydney played its part in his plot to outsmart the mother country.
Deakin toured the city, which was choked with visitors from all over the nation, and declared himself satisfied that all would go well the next day, Thursday, August 20, 1908. The only worry seemed to be that the more than 12,000 sailors aboard the 16 US Navy battleships - known as the Great White Fleet for its gleaming paint job - might not survive the week-long round of hospitality.
Major buildings and business houses were lit up: a "Welcome" sign six metres high sat on Fort Denison; the GPO had "Australia's Greetings"; the Supreme Court "In God We Trust"; Customs House selected "The Kinship of the Mayflower"; in Pitt Street was a globe with Uncle Sam and Australia shaking hands across the sea. King Street had a Statue of Liberty and all main roads had bunting, flags and columns with gilt eagles and crowns.
There was an excitement not matched since Federation was celebrated in January 1901. Every minute had been planned meticulously but there were last-minute panics. Accommodation for country military cadets became an issue - clear a wing of the city asylum was the suggestion. Huge numbers of US sailors would want to see Captain Cook's landing place at Kurnell, but the Aboriginal settlement at La Perouse was a disgrace - clear it and erect picturesque gunyahs was the proposal. Embers from new fireworks called "sparklers" threatened to set frocked matrons aflame - instant ban, declared the police. They'll miss their baseball - a three-Test series was arranged. The visiting Catholics will eat all the Friday fasting food - abstinence obligation lifted, declared Sydney's Cardinal Patrick Moran.
Deakin, who had helped push the idea of Federation through its darkest years, appeared to have no regrets that this visit had yet again blotted his copybook with Britain with its clear signal that Australia was determined to be master of its own destiny.
He was determined to develop an Australian navy and to form a link with the most powerful white nation on the Pacific Rim, and winning over the Australian public was crucial.
On Christmas Eve 1907, after sounding out US consular officials, Deakin sent the US president, Theodore Roosevelt, an invitation for the fleet to visit. The move was against the wishes of the British Foreign Office, the Admiralty and, in particular, the undersecretary of state for the colonies, Winston Churchill, who said of the invitation: "It ought certainly to be discouraged from every point of view." But they were boxed in by American indications that they liked the idea.
THE White Australia policy and its particular target - the Yellow Peril - was at large again, and this time the focus was not on China - bogyman of gold rush days - but on Japan.
In 1902 Britain and Japan had signed a commercial and military alliance. For Britain the upside was that the Royal Navy could concentrate on European matters, knowing it had a partner with a powerful navy to keep an eye on the Pacific Ocean. The new Australian government was uneasy with the idea of being protected by Japan, particularly after she signalled her status as a world power with the defeat in 1905 on land and sea of Russia.
The trouble was that Australians, like many in Europe and elsewhere, were fascinated by the Japanese. Japanese Navy training squadrons had twice entered Sydney Harbour, in 1903 and 1906, to enthusiastic receptions and valuable trade links had developed over the previous quarter-century. But with the Anglo-Japanese Alliance came pressure for a freer flow of Japanese into Australia and pointed criticism of the treatment of Japanese pearl divers.
White Australia was a tenet across all party lines, so Deakin got himself neatly out of the bind with an amendment to the Immigration Restriction Act, allowing Japanese to enter Australia, but only on passports that specified the purpose and duration of their visits.
That was Australia's first direct dealing with a foreign power, earning a rebuke from Britain, and now he was watching the second act unfold. It was nicely timed because the US was also having difficulties with the Japanese. In 1905 five Japanese poachers were killed during raids on Alaskan sealing grounds. In California in 1907 resentment over the 40,000 Japanese who had settled there boiled over, and San Francisco insisted that they be segregated.
Facing pressure from the Pacific states, Roosevelt, in February the same year, banned the entry of Japanese coolies, provoking resentment in Tokyo. Then in July, stung by criticism about the lack of west coast defences, he announced that the 16 battleships - painted white at his insistence - and support ships from the Atlantic fleet would be sent on a goodwill and training cruise of the Pacific, with Japan one of the destinations. Money was also pushed through for a huge Pacific naval base, at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii.
When Roosevelt said the route would be altered to accept Deakin's invitation, the Herald engaged a correspondent on the fleet and sent one of its reporters, the future war historian Charles Bean, to cover the Auckland-to-Australia leg. Their reports lifted the mood to a frenzy, and the Herald decided the time was right to do something special to record the arrival in Sydney: it would use photographs for the first time.
ALL along Sydney's coast and harbour, foreshore parks and reserves were thrown open. All country schools - defined as anywhere outside a line through Narrabeen, Hornsby, Wentworthville, Liverpool and Sutherland - were closed for two weeks. Two working days were declared public holidays.
Sydney put on the biggest day out in its 120-year history. When the Great White Fleet drew close to the Heads, a crowd estimated by the Herald at 650,000 - bigger than Federation Day numbers - had filled every vantage point from Botany Bay to Narrabeen and throughout the harbour.
"It was the most stupendously one-minded crowd on the way out that could have been imagined," the Herald said of the early morning rush. "Many had to walk because they could not get any other means of transport. The variety of vehicles along the road was wonderful. It embraced tramcars and lorries, pantechnicon furniture vans and 'bottle-ho' carts, carriages and buses, motor cars and bicycles."
The writer called for an inquiry into extortionate charges by cab drivers. The trains were packed: "People rode on the buffers and roofs, regardless of their clothes, and every aisle was a sardine wedge of humanity." Dozens of injuries were reported as people fell from precarious holds on trams. Passengers tumbled off an overloaded cart when the horse between the shafts was lifted off the ground. There were rescues as ferry passengers missed their footing and fell into the harbour.
An early mist added drama, and when it lifted about 8am the battleships emerged, making their way along the coast in squadrons of four. First Rear Admiral Sperry's flagship Connecticut appeared; then Kansas, Minnesota, Georgia, Vermont, Nebraska, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Louisiana, Virginia, Missouri, Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, Kearsarge and Kentucky.
"At last, when it is time to be turning, they swing out their long white sterns - as a lady sweeps her train - and with a swish as of skirts, and a little triangle of crisp, creamy, sparkling foam coming and going beneath each forefoot, set northward on their way to enter Sydney at last," the Herald reported. The crowds yelled and applauded, jam-packed small boats tooted and whistled, and church joy bells rang across the city.
Sydney stayed mad for a week. There were marches and banquets and "at homes" aboard the ships; a sailor's uniform gave free travel, free drinks and free entry to everything from vaudeville shows to performances on "the biggest organ in the world" at the Town Hall.
Trainloads of sailors were taken to the Illawarra, to Newcastle and to the Blue Mountains. The Americans won the baseball; the sailors played the fleet gridiron semi-final at the Sydney Cricket Ground. There were boxing exhibitions, a rugby match and buckjumping. At the showgrounds, 9000 schoolchildren formed linked flags and spelled out "Hail Columbia".
When the fleet set off for Melbourne estimates of desertions ranged from 17 to 200. There were farewells at dockside to girls the sailors had known "for hours and hours and hours", and pie sellers tried desperately for last-minute sales.
Deakin was in and out of the prime ministership three times between 1903 and 1910, and credit for keeping up the pressure for an Australian navy is shared with the Labor Party prime minister Andrew Fisher. The Royal Australian Navy was established on July 10, 1911.