Australia Day - January 26

On January 26, 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip guides a fleet of 11 British ships carrying convicts to the colony of New South Wales, effectively founding Australia

Australia, once known as New South Wales, was originally planned as a penal colony. In October 1786, the British government appointed Arthur Phillip captain of the HMS Sirius, and commissioned him to establish an agricultural work camp there for British convicts

With little idea of what he could expect from the mysterious and distant land, Phillip had great difficulty assembling the fleet that was to make the journey.

Captain Arthur Phillip led his 1,000-strong party, of whom more than 700 were convicts, around Africa to the eastern side of Australia. In all, the voyage lasted eight months, claiming the deaths of some 30 men

The first years of settlement were nearly disastrous. Cursed with poor soil, an unfamiliar climate and workers who were ignorant of farming, Phillip had great difficulty keeping the men alive.

Captain Arthur Phillip, who proved to be a tough but fair-minded leader, persevered by appointing convicts to positions of responsibility and oversight.

Though Captain Arthur Phillip returned to England in 1792, the colony became prosperous by the turn of the 19th century.

 Feeling a new sense of patriotism, the men began to rally around January 26 as their founding day

Finally, in 1818, January 26 became an official holiday, marking the 30th anniversary of British settlement in Australia.

And, as Australia became a sovereign nation, it became the national holiday known as Australia Day.

Today, Australia Day serves both as a day of celebration for the founding of the white British settlement, and as a day of mourning for the Aborigines who were slowly dispossessed of their land as white colonization spread across the continent.