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Australia Day, commemorates the day in 1788 on which Captain Arthur Phillip (1738 - 1814) organised and officiated at the first ceremony of the new British colony then called New South Wales.

It was for a selected few, done with a little pomp, but generally low key, and was mainly to wish the colony good luck, as was recorded by Phillip:

In the evening of the 26th, the colours were displayed on shore, and the Governor, with several of his principal officers and others, assembled around the flagstaff, drank the King’s health, and success to the settlement, with all the display of form which, on such occasions, is deemed propitious because it enlivens the spirits and fills the imagination with pleasing presages.

More than a week earlier, on January 18, Phillip had actually landed at Yarra Bay on Botany Bay’s northern shore, and later there was in fact a plaque commemorating that day, set in the wall of the first Government House, which said that on January 18 “Arthur Phillip ... arrived in this country with the first settlers”. January 18, then, might have been taken up as the date of the colony’s beginnings. It could have been Australia Day, but it was not.

Just as good a contender, perhaps better, might have been February 7, because on that day in 1788, Governor Phillip conducted a ceremony before a crowd of more than 1,000, virtually every European on the continent, in which the formalities associated with his royal commissions were carried out, and the assembled convicts were “harangued” (as a contemporary described his speech, though it was apparently well received by the audience). Phillip even gave the assembly the afternoon off. February 7, however, although promoted as a possible Australia Day by eminent historian CH Currey in the 1950s, never caught on.

Even in the early days there were other possible contenders for the honour of being Australia Day, such as any number of days on which Captain James Cook, or even Dirk Hartog or Abel Tasman made important discoveries on the Aussie coast. Nonetheless, from very early days in the colony, January 26 was seen as the Foundation Day, or Anniversary Day, of the New South Wales colony, which in a sense 'became' Australia.

Good pedigree

The pedigree of January 26 is impeccable and unrivalled. We know from early documents such as the Sydney Gazette and the Howe Almanacs that as early as 1804, and right through the following decades, January 26 was commemorated as either 'First Landing' or 'Foundation Day'.

Governor Lachlan Macquarie recorded in his journal on January 26, 1818, the following insight and event: 

This being the 30^th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Colony of N. S. Wales by Governor Phillip, who landed first at Sydney on 26th of Janry 1788, I directed 30 guns to be fired from Dawes Battery in honour of the occasion corresponding with the age of the Colony.

Government workers were given a holiday, as well, on this 1818 'Australia Day'. It became the norm soon after for banks and public offices to be closed on January 26.

In 1885, by which time the continent was being managed as a number of separate colonies, the idea of an Australian national day was put forward by a Mr HI Swifte, and was taken to the Victorian premier, who liked the concept and put it before the other premiers. 'Foundation' or 'Anniversary' Day was soon gazetted in each of the colonies.

In 1931, NSW Premier, Jack Lang decided that from 1932, 'Anniversary Day' would be designated Australia Day. In 1934, however, his decision was reversed by Premier Sir Bertram Stevens, and until 1946 the holiday in NSW was known as Anniversary Day.

Meanwhile, the Commonwealth Government in 1935 stated that all states, except NSW, had agreed to the name 'Australia Day'. In 1945, harmony was achieved when Sir William McKell’s government in NSW adopted the proposal, making January 26, 1946 the first 'official' Australia Day.

Australians’ characteristic antipathy towards 'flag waving' has sometimes led to a lack of usage of the day, and editors for decades have bemoaned the lack of spirit sometimes observed. The editor of The Educational Magazine from Victoria’s Education Department in 1957 suggested that the main reason for that attitude is that January 26 falls within the long school holidays. The author got behind historian Currey’s unsuccessful campaign for February 7.

January 1? Hungover!

In 1954 the influential magazine Meanjin published an article by James G Murtagh arguing for New Year’s Day as the Aussie National Day, and as mentioned above, some others today so argue. The most obvious case against that day seems always to be overlooked by its proponents: the fact is, on January 1, half the population of Australia, of the world, is hung over, and the other half is just plain tired. Even sober Baptists and Methodists have watch-night services on New Year’s Eve, and are up until all hours of the morning. If one tried, one could scarcely choose a more unsuitable day for public activity than New Year’s Day. Almost everyone spends half the day in bed. The highly successful Aussie Day breakfasts held all over the nation would become extinct if the New Yearists had their way. One must bear in mind, too, that January 1 is already the national day of at least five other countries, including India. As well, it is also no more politically correct than January 26 in terms of the indigenous people of this country, as they were not a part of the Federation process that came to fruition on January 1, 1901.

In 1994 a Sydney Morning Herald Saulwick poll found that more Australians like January 26 for their national day than the other touted days. New South Wales Premier Bob Carr, while in opposition in early 1995, rejected arguments against our national day. He conceded, and who could argue with him, that if more emphasis were placed on Aboriginal achievements, the day would have a greater standing, but he also emphasised that it is fashionable at present to express disgust at the British origins of the nation.

Mr Carr pointed out the beneficial things brought by British people to the continent, including trial by jury, freedom of the press and a parliamentary democracy. No small achievements, to which could be added a list as long as the one in the 'What did Rome ever do for us' sketch in Monty Python’s Life of Brian. (“Yeah, sure, but apart from hospitals, running water, schools, lending libraries, roads, a police force and insurance, what did the Poms ever do for us?”)

Value of familiarity

The strength of the argument to retain January 26 as the National Day of Australia is that it has been celebrated as such, in various styles but substantially the same way, from the beginning of European settlement. There is nothing to be ashamed of in that commemoration for those who wish to be involved, which is apparently the majority of Australians, despite the (collective noun deleted) of tradition-bashers and custom-benders.

When young Australians walk out the front door today, the landscape of Planet Earth will be greatly different from the one they saw yesterday. The change whirling around us is phenomenal and mind-shredding. Every day we see strange ways and sights supplanting the familiar. Those things which we have in our lives year after year - a mother’s love, a favourite cave, an ancient nursery rhyme - today assume a greater importance than at any time in human history, because they are endangered species.

Curiously, it has now become progressive to fight on the ramparts for the conservation of things we had more than a blipvert ago. It is a pity that various community leaders cannot see the sanctity of the old, the familiar and the revered.

Christmas comes at Christmas-time, my birthday is always when the fuchsias are flowering and Australia Day is celebrated on Australia Day. It’s not really that difficult. Unless some self-appointed social panel-beater changes things every time we go to bed. After two centuries of existence, hasn’t January 26 earned a place on the calendar?

Since I wrote this article in the 1990s, I have quite changed my mind. I am still partial to January 26 being Australia Day, for the reasons I have given, but if I had a say in the matter, I would now choose December 3, the date of the Eureka Stockade.

Footnote

In New South Wales, the Catholic Archbishop, Cardinal Moran, suggested Australia Day as an alternative to Empire Day.

William Holman, Premier of New South Wales, agreed with the idea. The Worker newspaper, organ of much trade unionism in New South Wales, vehemently disagreed with any form of celebration on January 26. On Australia Day 1911, it stated that while it had a deep regard for the past, the landing of Phillip was not worth celebrating. Rather, the election of the Labor Party in 1910 (the first elected Labor Government in Australian history) was a far more commendable achievement.

The Worker concluded,

"What of the future? A thousand barriers to progress have been swept from our path; a thousand still remain. The work is not completed; it is in fact only beginning. As those men in 1788 claimed Australia in the name of England, we in 1911 claim the land in the name of Labor. Let the British tie remain … Labor works to a practical goal and her great concern is the well-being of the whole people. As the early settlers faced a wilderness of forest and plain, we, their sons, are called upon to face a wilderness of traditional evils and deeply-rooted wrongs. Our work is different in nature, but the spirit in which it must be performed is the same. Let us see to it that the second century marks as great an advance as the first ..."

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