In what year was the centenary of the First Fleet landing celebrated with a major Australia Day event? The answer is 1888.
The First Fleet reached Sydney Cove in January 1788, so 1888 marked the centenary of the beginning of British colonisation in Australia. By then, 26 January was increasingly known as Anniversary Day or Foundation Day, although the name “Australia Day” had not yet become a fully nationwide standard.
The centenary prompted large public celebrations throughout the Australian colonies. Most colonial capitals declared Anniversary Day a public holiday, and festivities included banquets, fireworks, processions, regattas, and official ceremonies. Representatives from several colonies gathered in Sydney, where the anniversary had its strongest historical association.
This date is often confused with 1988, which was the bicentenary—the 200th anniversary—and featured a much larger national program, including a First Fleet re-enactment voyage. Another distinction is that the 1888 celebrations commemorated the centenary of the colonial landing, not Australian Federation; Federation did not occur until 1901. The anniversary was also contested: Indigenous activists and later generations challenged the idea that colonisation should be celebrated without acknowledging its consequences.