The average Australian is likely unconcerned with the history behind why we celebrate Australia Day on January 26. Instead, they’re probably just grateful for the day off, with much more pressing issues to deal with, such as finding out how much bloody longer those snags are going to take because the potato salad is starting to get warm.
If you were to pull this average Australian away from the barbecue for just one moment and ask why we celebrate on the 26th, you’d likely get a vague answer that mentions Captain Cook, the First Fleet or — if you’re lucky — both at the same time. Never mind that Cook’s arrival on these shores was separated from the First Fleet’s by almost two whole decades.
The more historically minded, however, may know a little more: the First Fleet left Britain on May 13, 1787, with 11 ships carrying 1,420 people — over half of whom were convicts — sailing halfway across the world for a total of 252 days before finally arriving in Botany Bay on, of course, the… 18th of January 1788. Not the 26th.
Australia Day, contrary to popular belief, does not commemorate the arrival of the First Fleet to Australian shores. Nor does it commemorate the official founding of New South Wales, which took place on February 7, the date governor Arthur Phillip formally proclaimed the brand-new colony on the banks of Sydney Cove.
Why the 26th, then? What event of such monumental historical significance took place on that date in 1788, leading it to become our national holiday?
After arriving in Botany Bay, governor Phillip was dismayed to find the location was — to be honest — a bit shit. The soil was poor and ill-suited to farming, the trees were rather inconsiderately resistant to attempts to fell them, the bay itself was shallow and hard to defend, there was next to no fresh water available, and, what’s worse, the whole place had distressingly large ants crawling about everywhere, which must have been a terrible thing for an Englishman like Phillip to deal with.
With all this in mind, Phillip deployed scouts to seek out a more appropriate place to establish the fledgling colony, and before long they returned with stories of a magnificent natural harbour a short way north. Nice and deep, readily defensible, terrific soil, plenty of fresh water — it sounded absolutely perfect, although the historical record remains disappointingly silent on the quantity and size of the ants there.
Governor Phillip decided to move the fleet from Botany Bay to this natural harbour, which he named Sydney Cove. He went ahead on one ship on the 25th, and the other 10 followed the next day, arriving in Sydney Cove on the 26th.
That’s it. That’s why Australia Day is January 26: it was the date the First Fleet moved from Botany Bay to Sydney Cove. Needless to say, speaking from a historical standpoint, the weird fixation some Australians have with January 26 is thoroughly unfounded.
Relative to what happened before and after this date, the 26th is laughably unimportant: the First Fleet arrived in Australia a week beforehand, and the colony was formally established almost two weeks later. It is baffling to think that all the people ranting and raving about protecting our history are, in reality, arguing in defence of the commemoration of the First Fleet undertaking the 18th-century equivalent of finding a better parking spot outside the supermarket.
There are, of course, much better and more important reasons our national holiday should have its date changed. The indefensible pain, suffering and anguish that European settlers inflicted on Indigenous peoples as part of this continent’s colonisation should be enough for us, as a nation, to offer the barest amount of sympathy to this country’s First Peoples, and do them the courtesy of not publicly celebrating a symbol of their mistreatment and murder.
But even if it isn’t the most important reason to change the date, the fact there is precious little historical justification for our national holiday to be celebrated on January 26 remains relevant, if only to bear an ugly truth about those who claim they are “preserving our heritage”. It isn’t about defending Australia’s history: it’s about the continued disempowerment and disenfranchisement of this nation’s Indigenous peoples.
All the same, it’s never a good idea to object to something without providing an alternative. So if we were to change the date, what would be a good replacement for our national holiday? May 9, perhaps, the date of the first opening of the Australian Parliament in 1901? Or maybe March 3, the date we formally cut all legal ties with the United Kingdom in 1986?
Were it left up to me, however, I would pick another day entirely. What this country needs is a national holiday that we can all get behind, one that commemorates a historically significant event that united, rather than divided, the nation — one that represents the very best of what it means to be Australian to the world.
I submit, therefore, February 16 as a replacement for Australia Day. Which day in this nation’s history united us more, which day made us prouder to be Australian, which day proved beyond any doubt we are the luckiest people on earth than February 16, 2002: the day speed skater Stephen Bradbury won Australia’s first Winter Olympic gold medal, after every single other skater in the race crashed out ahead of him.
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