From the beginning of the British colonisation in 1788 and after Australia's federation in 1901, the
governor-general and the
various state governors had been the official representatives of the British government, as well as the Crown. Following the
1926 Imperial Conference and the subsequent
Balfour Declaration an Australian, Sir
Isaac Isaacs, became Governor-General in January 1931. Being an Australian, it was felt in London he couldn't properly represent the British Government. They thus appointed their representative for migration in Melbourne
Ernest Tristram Crutchley as their first representative of His Majesty's Government in Australia, pending the nomination of a
high commissioner, on the Canadian model. That same year, the
Statute of Westminster made easier the creation of such high commissions in the dominions but as the Australian Government delayed its ratification, the United Kingdom had to wait until 1936 to appoint a high commissioner to regularise the role of the Governor-General in Australia, six years before Australia's
actual ratification of the Statute. ==Office-holders==