About Australia Day
Australia Day, on 26 January, is the national day of Australia and marks the anniversary of 1788, when Captain Arthur Phillip raised the British flag at Sydney Cove and the First Fleet of British ships established the penal colony of New South Wales. The day was first informally celebrated in the 1810s and became an official public holiday across the country only in 1994. It remains a contested date: for many Indigenous Australians it is Invasion Day or Survival Day, marking the start of dispossession, frontier violence and a long process of cultural and physical loss. Indigenous-led mourning gatherings have grown in scale since the 1930s, alongside the celebratory civic events. Polls show a slow but steady decline in support for the 26 January date, particularly among younger Australians, and several local councils have moved their official events.
The official events in capital cities open with the Australian of the Year awards announced on the eve, a flag-raising ceremony at dawn, an Indigenous welcome to country and a citizenship ceremony on the day itself. Sydney Harbour hosts the Tall Ships race and ferrython, with backyard barbecues and pool parties through the suburbs; tens of thousands gather on the foreshore. Triple J's Hottest 100 countdown — the world's largest music poll — runs all afternoon. Cricket plays a big role: the Big Bash League final often falls around this date. At the same time, Invasion Day rallies, marches and survival concerts draw growing crowds across every major city, with Indigenous artists and speakers at the front. Many Australians find themselves in two parallel observances on the same day.