Australia Day 2020 date: When is Australia Day? Why is it celebrated?

Australia Day is for many Aussies a chance to celebrate all things Australian and is marked at home and abroad. But the date is not without controversy and has been the result of protests in

recent years.

Australia Day is on January 26 every year and the main celebration occur on this date even if the holiday is moved to another public holiday is moved to an alternate date.

This year the public holiday will be observed on Monday, January 27.

Many Aussies associate Australia Day with national pride and celebrate by flying the country’s flag from their homes, cars, businesses or any other place they can think of.

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Festivals, fireworks and other celebratory events are organised to mark the occasion.

Australia Day is the anniversary of the first fleet from Britain landing in Sydney Cove on January 26, 1770.

Australia had been claimed earlier by Captain James Cook when he landed at what is now Possession Island on August 22, 1770.

The British had intended Australia to be a penal colony and Captain Arthur Philip was tasked with leading the first fleet.

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He was put in charge of HMS Sirius and his mission was to transport the 11-strong fleet of 1,500 passengers – among them 700 prisoners – to Australia to establish an agricultural work camp.

The fleet finally landed on January 26 after a journey which lasted eight months.

Celebrations to mark the date followed as colonies in Australia grew and spread.

Governor Macquarie declared January 26 as an official public holiday on the 30th anniversary of the colony in 1818.

By 1935, all Australian states adopted the 26th as Australia Day but some gave it different names such as Foundation Day.

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Today, there is a growing number of people who feel uncomfortable about the holiday because they feel it celebrates the effect colonialism had on Australia’s indigenous people.

The indigenous people had called Australia their home for tens of thousands of years prior to the British’s arrival.

Rallies have in recent years been organised to recognise Australia Day as Invasion Day.

And there are now efforts to change the date of Australia Day so there is no longer an association with the first colonisers.

Lots of people become Australian citizens on Australia Day during citizenship ceremonies.

The Australian government awards the Order of Australia on January 26 which is “an Australian society of honour for according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for

achievement or meritorious service”.

The Australian of the Year award ceremony also takes place on the 26th, as do the Senior Australian of the Year, Young Australian of the Year and Australia’s Local Hero awards.

The winners get to enjoy tea with the Prime Minister and lunch with the Governor General before the ceremony in front of Parliament House.

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