Celebrated on January 26 each year, Australia Day is now the official national day of Australia.
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It does not commemorate the landing of James Cook, as many seem to believe, nor does it commemorate the landing in NSW of the 11 ships of the First Fleet.
Relying on Joseph Banks’ glowing reports from 1770, the First Fleet landed at Port Jackson earlier in January.
They found that Port Jackson to be a shallow harbour. Its hinterland was sandy, dry and unsuitable for farming.
Captain Arthur Phillip ordered the fleet northward to Sydney Harbour.
The Union Jack was raised there on January 26 at Sydney Cove, deep inside Sydney Harbour.
Governor Macquarie first ordered a public holiday for an official celebration of the day in 1818.
It only celebrated the foundation of NSW.
After that, the day was variously celebrated as Anniversary Day, Foundation Day or First Landing Day in that colony until 1888.
It was celebrated with sports and feasting.
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Each colony celebrated its foundation on a different day.
For example, Western Australia celebrated its Foundation Day, a public holiday, on the first Monday in June.
It is now called Western Australia Day.
The Swan River Colony in Western Australia was established on May 2, 1829.
However, the first permanent European settlement began on December 26, 1826, with an expedition from NSW.
Victoria celebrated Victoria Day on July 1.
This was the date of separation from NSW in 1851.
The day was a public holiday in the colony until 1914.
In fact, formal announcement of separation took place on November 15, 1850.
The position was similarly vexed and muddled in the other colonies.
As time went on, various groups and newspapers began to pressure for a union of the Australian colonies.
The Australian Natives’ Association (ANA), paradoxically an organisation restricted to white men born in Australia, was a powerful lobby group for federation, and the white Australia policy.
Part of its lobbying was the promotion of "Australia Day".
It was celebrated on the Monday nearest to January 26.
So successful was the Association’s lobbying that that particular long weekend was known as "ANA Weekend" from 1891 until the 1960s.
On January 1, 1901, the Australian colonies federated as the Commonwealth of Australia.
None celebrated January 1 or January 26 as "Australia Day".
In 1910 South Australia began to celebrate January 26 as "Foundation Day".
In 1915, to promote patriotic feelings, "Australia Day" began to be celebrated widely - on July 30! This was repeated throughout the Great War.
It took until 1935 for all Australian states to adopt "Australia Day" as the term for January 26 or the Monday closest to it.
In 1946, all states finally unified "Australia Day" as January 26 although most states still celebrated not the day, but the following Monday, as a public holiday.
Only in 1994 did the whole of Australia finally celebrate January 26 as "Australia Day" and a public holiday.
- John Barry
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