The anniversary of the landing of the First Fleet under Captain Arthur Phillip at Port Jackson in New South Wales on January 26th, 1788.
Here’s the official site, and more information at Wikipedia.
I should note that recently this has taken on most of the controversy of Columbus Day in the US, with some people noting the event being celebrated was actually an invasion. I have no right to an opinion on the controversy.
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Just another reason for our Politicians & the moronic pig-ignorant RWNJ’s to be total dicks.
Captain Phillip’s ship arrived on Jan. 25th & he raised the Flag to claim the land. The rest of his fleet arrived on the 26th. SO did the French. *shrug*
Should be March 3rd anyway. When the Australia Act (1986) came into effect after being signed by Queen Elezabeth II and PM Bob Hawke. Which is why the LNP (Coalition) are despertae NOT to use that day. 1: they had nothing at all to do with the Act being introduced & accepted by the UK, 2 It makes the ALP, their sworn enemies, look good as they achieved something the LPA (before they joined with the National party) had failed to accomplish The LNP dishonestly claim the act wasn’t necessary & was just an ALP scam, citing the Statute of Westminster 1931, adopted by Australia in 1942, which stated that no future UK Act would apply to a Dominion (Australia) as part of its law unless the Act expressly declared that the Dominion had requested and consented to it. However, it only applied to UK laws that were to apply to, or be a part of, Australian Commonwealth law. It did not apply to UK laws that could apply to Australian States. Basically, it tied the UK’s hands as far as the Australian Governor General, but not the State Governors.
It all became necessary after the 1975 constitutional crisis (famously known as “the Dismissal”) when Governor-General John Kerr basically sacked PM Gough Whitlam (ALP) and installed Malcolm Fraser (LPA) as Prime Minister without an election. Fraser was known as one of the worst PM’s in our history. Which is why the LPA will never refer to March 3rd as “Australia Day” even though it makes the most sense. Because the Australia Act (1986) removed their ability to steal the Federal Government without an election. See, LNP (or even just the LPA) are no different from your GOP.
New Zealand & Canada followed Australia’s lead & did the same thing not long after.
So Australia Day is really the equivalent of Columbus Day in the US – the day a European stumbled across a continent that had been in place for 100s of thousands of years. They act like it didn’t exist until they saw it. Now if the indigenous peoples had build a proper wall, we wouldn’t have these problems 😈
The US solution would be to call the 25/26 Phillips Day and make it a three-day bank holiday and make March 3rd Australia Day/Independence Day/Third of March…
Nah, can’t do that. It would be too easy and make too much sense. If there is one thing former British colonies like the US and Australia can’t tolerate is anything that actually makes sense 👿