A passing thought while I'm in Western Australia...
WA was never part of New South Wales, so 26 January 1788 - Sydney's foundation day - can have no meaning for it per se.
The only significance 26 January can have for this part of Australia is a celebration of the arrival of white settlers on the continent. So nothing to do with the modern nation state of Australia, and everything to do with white supremacy.
It really won't do as the date for a unifying national day.
@timrichards It does however provide a useful bookend to the summer holiday season, so I think that, regardless of where the national day ends up, the last Friday in January should be a national ‘Summer Public Holiday’ every year.
@timrichards I fear that without that end-of-January anchor point people in my profession would, over the years, tend to drift back to work earlier and earlier and, before you know it, the long January sojourn will be gone!
@timrichards We were discussing this yesterday. It is as meaningless as the King’s official birthday. Just an arbitrary date as far as WA is concerned. However should Australia declare itself a republic then a unifying date of independence would conveniently be created.
@crazypantz6@timrichards@iskandarv If WA have to celebrate 26 Jan then Eastern Australia should have to celebrate 30 Mar, the day French Captain Jean Mengaud de la Hage claimed the Western half of the continent for King Louis XV 😉
@MorpheusB SA was part of NSW once. But in a general sense, I can't see how Sydney's foundation day has a national resonance unless it's as a celebration of colonialism. Just particularly sticks out re WA.
@timrichards@adamhsparks as a long time resident who was born on 26 Jan I have always felt this way. Also growing up here most people couldn't even tell you what the holiday was for (it was always on the closest Monday) until the 90s when Governments started ramping up the jingoism
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