Australia Day

Australia Day, which takes place on 26 January, is the anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet of convict ships—led by Captain Arthur Phillip (later governor of the New South Wales Colony)—that arrived at Sydney Cove in 1788. Thirty years after the landing, Governor Lachlan Macquarie pronounced the anniversary to be a public holiday (at the time, it was known as Foundation Day). In 1838, on the fiftieth anniversary of the landing, New South Wales (NSW) held a regatta, which would become an annual tradition. By the next century, only one of the country's colonies—South Australia—did not yet honour the tradition. In 1935 the celebration was officially renamed Australia Day to commemorate all Australians, regardless of their native heritage. Although the holiday has been the subject of controversy, Australia Day continues to celebrate citizens of different nationalities, descendants of the convicts who arrived at Sydney Cove, and Aboriginal Australians as one unified society.

Background

By the eighteenth century, the territories of British Empire spanned the globe. Its reaches extended across the Atlantic to the Americas, into Africa, India, and eventually as far east as Australia. London was the largest and one of the world's most prosperous cities, with a tremendous population of citizens who left their farms to live and work in the urban centre. In the late 1500s, Britain had authorised the practice of transporting certain criminals out of England and into other territories under the Crown, but that policy was rarely invoked. By the 1700s, though, the population of London had become so concentrated that Britain began sending many of its criminals to penal colonies in other parts of the Empire.

These criminals were not always violent offenders or master thieves. Rather, many of them were political rivals and those who committed petty crimes. Some were jailed because they stole a few shillings' worth of food or clothing. The jails themselves were overcrowded, with those convicted of lesser offenses housed together with hardened criminals. Thus, many convicts were not only jailed unfairly, but were given a punishment that did not fit the crimes they committed. For instance, the sentence for petty theft might be several years of hard labour in penal colony thousands of miles away.

One of the leading territories that used to receive such prisoners was America (specifically, the colonies of Maryland and Virginia) to work on plantations and farms that aided the British economy. This practice came to a halt in 1782, as the American War of Independence was ending and the United States of America was emerging as an independent nation.

Meanwhile, the ever-growing population of criminals led officials to turn former gunships and armed merchant ships ("Indiamen") that were moored in London and Portsmouth into makeshift floating prisons. In 1787, the British government decided that these massive ships—dubbed "hulks"—should be used to begin transporting their cargo to a penal colony that was to be established in New South Wales (NSW), which had been established by British explorer James Cook when he claimed the eastern portion of the territory known as New Holland for England on 22 August 1770.

The First Wave

The practice of shipping convicts from England to the colonies was known as "transportation". These prisoners were predominantly young males in their twenties, sold to merchant contractors to perform hard labour in the colonies. They were jailed aboard the hulks when the prisons, which were overcrowded after the war in America prevented transportation across the Atlantic, had no more room. The hulks were then sent on the twelve-thousand-mile journey to New South Wales. The First Fleet of eleven hulks and ships were bound for a rugged area known as Botany Bay, where they would develop a new penal colony. Conditions on the ships were harsh—many died of disease, poor treatment by the jailers, and the rough seas—but as convicts, their plights garnered very little sympathy from the public. On 26 January 1788, the fleet arrived at Sydney Cove instead of Botany Bay, as the former offered the ships the ability to anchor as well as a fresh water source.

Over the course of time, more prisoners arrived via hulks and other ships. They established and worked on a number of different colonies up and down the coast. Each colony was distinct—some were harsh prisons, others were work camps, and still others served as serviceable communities. The success of the program led NSW Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1818 to make the anniversary of the 26 January landing a public holiday.

Celebrating the Anniversary

The anniversary of the 1788 landing—which had initially been called "Foundation Day" or "First Landing Day" until Macquarie adopted the recommendation of Captain Matthew Flinders that the land be called "Australia"—evolved considerably over the first century of NSW's history. By 1888, there were colonies in Tasmania, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, Southern Australia, and New Zealand as well as NSW. They were not averse to the idea of a celebration of the colonization of Australia. There was, however, some objection to the date of 26 January—although NSW was the first landing site, each colony had its own "landing day" that could be honoured. Nevertheless, the 26 January date continued to be commemorated, although recognition of all Australian territories became the practise instead of celebrating just the history of NSW.

Also of issue was the fact that Australia Day initially commemorated the landing of European colonists in Australia when there was already a sizable indigenous population living there. Indigenous peoples and European colonists initially met on reasonable terms. Over time, however, the growth of the colonies displaced these indigenous peoples and created an adversarial relationship between white and Aboriginal Australians. In 1938 Aboriginal groups called for a national day of mourning to recognize the treatment of their peoples at the hands of white colonists. Today, an important part of Australia Day is the theme of reconciliation, and recognizing that Australia Day may have different meanings—some positive and some negative—for different citizens. Nonetheless, the government in Sydney argues, Australia Day remains a celebration and a recognition of the diverse population of Australians.

Bibliography

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"Australia Day History Lesson: 12 Facts You Didn't Know About Your Ancestors." Daily Telegraph, 25 Jan. 2016, www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/australia-day-history-lesson-12-facts-you-didnt-know-about-your-ancestors/news-story/8cdb555e7ae5377115a903c8420423ac. Accessed 17 June 2024.

"Convicts and the British Colonies in Australia." Australian Government, 2016, www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/convicts-and-the-british-colonies. Accessed 16 17 June 2024.

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Keneally, Thomas. Australians: Origins to Eureka. Allen & Unwin, 2010.

Patel, Samir S. "Australia's Shackled Pioneers." Archaeology, 2011, archive.archaeology.org/1107/features/convict‗era‗australia‗sydney.html. Accessed 17 June 2024.

"Why Were Convicts Transported to Australia?" Sydney Living Museums, 2016, sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/stories/why-were-convicts-transported-australia. Accessed 17 June 2024.