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On January 26, 1788, 11 British transport ships carrying up to 1,500 convicts landed at Port Jackson in Sydney Cove. Under the command of Admiral Arthur Phillip, the First Fleet founded the first European colony in New South Wales, today known as Sydney, Australia. By 1808, January 26th began to be remembered as a significant date, and the anniversary of Sydney's founding grew over the decades to become the national day of celebration that it is today.
By the 50th anniversary in 1838, the event was declared a public holiday — Australia's first — and marked by fireworks and various other celebrations that went late into the night. In 1888, at the centennial, the first instance of "Australia Day" was used on official documents. Then, just prior to the outbreak of WWII, the 150th anniversary was marked in 1938 with an equal amount of enthusiasm. Finished the year prior, British Impressionist Algernon Talmage's The Founding of Australia was painted in reverence of Australia Day, which was by then an important occasion in every corner of the British Empire.
For the Australia Day Bicentennial in 1988, Sydney Harbour brought history to life with a full-scale re-enactment of the First Fleet's landing at Sydney Cove. A fleet of period-accurate wooden sailing vessels, similar to the ones commanded by Admiral Arthur Phillip in 1788, paraded through the harbour before making contact with the land an event marked by a massive public celebration and fireworks display. While the Bicentennial attracted a record 2.5 million people, there were many, primarily among Aboriginal groups and their supporters, who launched a series of protests and public demonstrations decrying the troubled history of European colonization, and the present-day effects that continued to manifest themselves among Aboriginal communities two centuries after contact.
Today a thoroughly modern affair, though it is still celebrated with aide of the "First Fleet," Australia Day continues to be a much-anticipated national day of celebration.
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