Australia Day

Australia Day is meant to provide a formal recognition of the existence of 'Australia' by commemorating the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 at Sydney Cove and the raising of the Union Jack flag of Great Britain by the first Governor, Arthur Philip. Prior to 1988, Australia Day was quite innocuous with low key celebrations, if any, announcement of public recongition 'honours' recipients and generally it was taken as a public holiday with little fanfare. Re-enactments of the raising of the Flag attracted as few as 200 people at Sydney Cove and the day largely passed without much activity or interest, apart from those going to the beach if the weather was hot.

From the 1988 Bicentenary onward however that changed and Australia Day became the large event it is now and correspondingly increasingly controversial. With this expansion came renewed debate as to the significance of the event and its relative meaning - for the indigenous community it became a constant reminder of the start of the colonisation; for others it retained a connection to Great Britain when Australia was moving into its own cultural identity; for migrants whom did not come from the United Kingdom, it remained a curiosity but little else. So it does raise the question as to whether this is the most apt date to commemorate Australia as a whole or whether such a day is better suited to other significant events such as Federation Day or ANZAC Day both of which have national significance for the country as a whole.

Federation Day commemorates the then six disparate British colonies becoming a single Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. There is no single answer to the question of the most appropriate date for Australia Day and public opinion polling continues to show a majority of support remains for leaving the current date in place, albeit that this support is less pronounced now than years ago.