Solving the Australia Day dilemma Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Observed annually on 26 January, it marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove and raising of the Union Flag by Arthur Phillip following days of exploration of Port Jackson in New South Wales. . It will always be invasion day for Australia’s first nations people -- a day of hurt and pain. The solution is to move Australia day to January 1st. That date marks the day in 1901 when Australia became a Federation -- a single unified nation -- for the first time. Before January first 1901, Australia was a series of British colonies. And for some 60 thousand years before that, it was a collection of hundreds (between 350 and 500) separate Indigenous Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations, each with their own cultures and languages. So, January first marks the origin of a single Australian nation. Stuart Gary (P.S. You can always move the New Year’s Day public holiday to December 31st and call it the New Year’s Eve public holiday instead.)