When the first platypus specimen arrived in England around 1799, the scientists at the British Museum thought it was a hoax. They spent hours looking for stitches and glue, trying to prove that this furry, duck-billed, web-footed animal sent from the other side of the world was nothing more than a clever forgery.

All of this was because the platypus simply did not fit into any of the old categories that European scientists used to classify every other animal they’d come across.

Australia has always done things differently. In doing so, we’ve often helped the world think differently. This is particularly true of Australian democracy.

The emu and the kangaroo can’t move backwards, hence their place on Australia’s coat of arms.Credit: iStock

Today, our federation turns 125 years old. We may sometimes think of ourselves as a young nation on an ancient continent. Yet as well as being home to the oldest continuous culture on Earth, Australia is also one of the world’s oldest – and strongest – modern democracies.

In itself, the coming together of the Australian Federation is a remarkable story of the peaceful exercise of a people’s will. A collection of colonies that instinctively understood their common interests and common purpose would be better served as a commonwealth. In the words of the first prime minister of Australia, Edmund Barton: “A nation for a........

© The Sydney Morning Herald