Australia Day became a national public holiday in all Australian states and territories in 1994. That change standardised 26 January as the date nationwide and ended the practice in some jurisdictions of observing the holiday on a nearby Friday for a long weekend.
The date commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788 and Governor Arthur Phillip’s proclamation of British sovereignty over part of the eastern continent. The day’s status developed gradually: New South Wales had marked it as a public holiday in the nineteenth century, while other colonies adopted related observances at different times.
A common mix-up is 1935. By then, all states were celebrating 26 January as Australia Day, but the arrangements and naming were not yet fully uniform. The 1994 reform established the modern nationwide public-holiday framework, although Australia Day’s meaning and celebration remain subjects of public debate, particularly because of its impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.