"PRIVATE MILITARY COMPANIES AND MILITARY OPERATIONS", Working Paper 138, Land Warfare Studies Centre, Canberra, October 2010, 61 pp.
- igrwing
- Jan 21
- 0 min read
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Australia Day!
Today is “Australia Day” – Australia’s national day.
It marks the raising of the British flag at Sydney Cove on the 26th of January 1788, and the establishment of the first European permanent settlement.
Eighteen years earlier, our country had been claimed by the British explorer Captain James Cook on the 1st of January 1770. He had named the eastern half of the continent “New South Wales”.
The settlers who raised the flag at Sydney Cove 237 years ago were led by Captain Arthur Phillip and he was appointed the first Governor of New South Wales.
Governor Phillip commanded the “First Fleet” of eleven ships which had taken 250 days to sail around from Portsmouth in England. The eleven ships consisted of two small warships of the Royal Navy, HMS Sirius and HMAT Supply; six convict transports, Alexander, Charlotte, Friendship, Lady Penrhyn, Prince of Wales and Scarborough; and three storeships, Borrowdale, Fishburn and Golden Grove.
The ships contained 565 officers, sailors and marines; 54 wives and children; and 1,030 convicts (of whom 767 were male, 222 were female and 41 were children). The new settlement also had seven horses, seven cattle, 29 sheep and 74 pigs.
The fleet had first landed on the 20th of January at Botany Bay, which is to the south. But Phillip didn’t like the area and his further explorations discovered the magnificent harbour where the city of Sydney would later develop.
Two French ships were following the First Fleet but fortunately Governor Phillip’s forces were sufficient to deter them from causing any trouble and they departed peacefully.
Phillip also frequently met with the indigenous people who followed a paleolithic way of life in the area. Phillip required that the colonists treat the indigenous people with respect and some of them were recruited as native guides. The manly appearance of their warriors led to the naming of the Sydney beachside suburb of Manly. The eastern end of Sydney Cove was later named Bennelong Point after Woollarawarre Bennelong, a Wangal Man who was the chief of the local Eora clan.
On the morning of the 26th, Governor Phillip and a small party of marines assembled at the head of a small cove which he had chosen for the new settlement. Phillip named the settlement after Lord Sydney – the British Home Secretary who had devised the plan for the penal settlement in New South Wales. Sydney Cove is now better known as “Circular Quay”.
Some sailors raised the Union Jack on a makeshift flagpole and the marines fired a volley with their muskets. The assembled crowd gave three cheers to King George III and a toast was drunk with cups of porter (brown ale).
The 26th of January was subsequently celebrated in the 19th Century as “First Landing Day” and “Foundation Day”. It became Australia’s official national day ninety years ago in 1935.
For me, the most memorable Australia Day was the “Bicentenary of Australia” on Australia Day in 1988. It was a huge day of historical reenactments; the “Parade of Sails” which was the largest gathering of sailing vessels ever assembled in Sydney Harbour; long distance camel racing; and a massive party across the country.
Today we are especially proud to be Australian and, in the words of our national anthem:
“Advance Australia Fair!”
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