Remembering Australia Day

Australia Day is the anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet of 11 convict ships from Great Britain in Port Jackson, and the raising of the Union Jack at Sydney Cove in 1788.

The first official celebrations for Foundation Day, as it was then known, were held in 1818, marking the thirtieth anniversary of white settlement. Governor Macquarie ordered a salute of 30 guns to be fired from the battery at Dawes Point and in the evening gave a dinner at Government House.
In 1836 a group of seafaring friends decided to celebrate with a sailing regatta. The Australia Day Regatta, originally the Anniversary Regatta, is still held on Sydney Harbour on 26 January each year and has become the oldest continuous regatta in the world.

Fifty years after Phillip landed, in 1838, a number of celebratory events were organised and the first public holiday ever marked in Australia was announced for that year.

In 1871 the Australian Natives' Association formed in Victoria. The ANA supported many issues including an Australian-made goods policy, water conservation and the wattle as the national floral emblem in 1912. However, some of their strongest support was towards Federation, the celebration of a unified national day and the calling of that day Australia Day.

With the exception of Adelaide, all colonial capitals had declared Anniversary Day 1888 a public holiday and celebrations took place throughout the colonies.

The 1938 sesquicentenary celebrations focussed on white British Australia and a re-enactment of Philip’s landing was performed. Before the re-enactment Aboriginal activists met to hold a 'Day of Mourning' conference aimed at securing national citizenship and equal status for Aborigines.

In the years leading up to WWII, and even during the war, the ANA had been working towards the unified naming and dating of our national day. In 1946, following their concerted efforts and the support of similar movements, the Commonwealth Government and all States and Territories finally agreed to observe the same national day and to call it Australia Day.

Separate Australian citizenship became law in 1949. The waves of non-British immigration after 1945 led to a new role for Australia Day, one that celebrated new citizenship with 'naturalisation' ceremonies.

The first Australian of the Year was bestowed on Macfarlane Burnet in 1960. Professor Burnet had won the Nobel Prize that year for his groundbreaking physics research.

In the 1970s, Australian citizenship was redefined with the concept of multiculturalism. The Whitlam Labor Government adopted this policy to break the hold of the old White Australia Policy, which limited the countries from which potential migrants could come to Australia. This broader approach has made Australia Day the focus of new citizenship.

In 1988, alongside the formal program celebrating 200 years of white settlement, the Aboriginal community staged a massive march for 'Freedom, Justice and Hope' in Sydney. It was estimated 15000 people attended. The five-kilometre march began with a mourning corroboree. White supporters were asked to join the march halfway.

There still remained separate dates for Australia Day celebrations in some states. It took until 1994 for united Australia-wide celebrations to take place on 26 January and national celebrations have been held on the actual day since that year.

Pictured: The Founding of Australia, 26 January 1788, by Captain Arthur Phillip R.N. Sydney Cove. Original oil sketch [1937] by Algernon Talmage