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Australia Day, marked each year on 26 January, carries many meanings and for communities like the Hawkesbury, it is a day best understood through both history and lived experience.
While 26 January has been observed in various forms since the early 1800s, it was not formally declared a national public holiday until 1994, when all states and territories agreed to observe Australia Day on the same date. Prior to that decision, different states marked the day on different Mondays or dates, often for convenience rather than historical consistency. The 1994 agreement between the States and Territories made 26 January a unified national holiday for the first time.
For many Australians, Australia Day has traditionally been a celebration of nationhood, a day for citizenship ceremonies, community events, barbecues and local pride. It is when new Australians take their citizenship pledge, affirming a shared commitment to Australia’s democratic values, freedoms and opportunities.
But Australia Day is also increasingly recognised as a day of contested history.
For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, 26 January marks the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, which signalled the beginning of dispossession, violence, cultural disruption and profound loss. From this perspective, the day is widely referred to as Invasion Day, acknowledging the reality that British settlement came at enormous cost to the world’s oldest continuing cultures.
Others describe the day as Survival Day, a powerful recognition of the resilience, strength and continuity of First Nations peoples, who survived despite policies and practices designed to erase language, culture and connection to Country.
As this national conversation has evolved, so too have alternative dates been put forward as ways of celebrating Australia without the trauma associated with 26 January.
One commonly suggested date is 1 January 1901, the day the six colonies federated to become the Commonwealth of Australia. For many, Federation represents the birth of modern Australia as a nation, with shared governance and identity, distinct from British colonial rule.
Another proposal looks to Wattle Day, traditionally celebrated in early September, when Australia’s national floral emblem, the golden wattle blooms across much of the country. Supporters argue Wattle Day offers a unifying, seasonal symbol of Australia’s landscape, resilience and natural beauty, free from the historical weight carried by January 26.
In recent years, Australia Day has increasingly become a moment of reflection as much as celebration. Many councils, community organisations and families now choose to mark the day in ways that acknowledge both pride in contemporary Australia and respect for the injustices of the past. This can mean attending citizenship ceremonies, flying the flag, listening to Aboriginal voices, learning local history, or simply having conversations that were once avoided.
Australia Day does not mean the same thing to everyone and that reality does not weaken the nation. If anything, it reflects a maturing Australia: one capable of holding multiple truths at the same time.
For the Hawkesbury, a region shaped by ancient culture, colonial settlement, farming, floods and community resilience, Australia Day is an opportunity to pause and consider what it truly means to belong. Not just to celebrate where we are now, but to understand how we arrived here and how we move forward together with honesty, respect and care.
As the sun rises on 26 January, Australia Day remains a day of meaning, debate and reflection and a reminder that the story of Hawkesbury and Australia is still being written, by all of us.
