A chain email / social media post from 2020 claiming Australia Day is celebrated on January 26 to mark "independence from British rule", rather than the invasion and colonisation of Australia, has been circulated again despite being long-debunked by experts.
The email/post asserts "Captain Cook did not arrive in Australia on the 26th of January", a fact not in dispute. It goes on to state the First Fleet arrived in Botany Bay on January 18 (though it does not mention the year – 1788).
The debunked post goes on to claim the January 26 "was chosen as Australia Day for a very different and important reason", and cites the passage of the Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948 on that date in 1949.
Professor Helen Irving, a constitutional law expert from the University of Sydney, told AAP FactCheck that the post is "full of confusions".
"The first boat of the First Fleet landed at Botany Bay on 18 January, 1788, but the Fleet then moved to Port Jackson (what became Sydney), where on 26 January 1788, the British flag was raised," she said.
"It was the First Fleet's arrival in 1788 that was marked at (the bicentenary) in 1988, not Cook's arrival (in 1770)."
Professor Frank Bongiorno, from the Australian National University's School of History, told AAP FactCheck that Australia Day is celebrated on January 26 to mark the date the First Fleet, led by Captain Arthur Phillip, arrived in Sydney Cove in 1788.
The most famous depiction of Captain Phillip raising the flag, by Algernon Talmage RA in 1937, is entitled: "The Founding of Australia. By Capt. Arthur Phillip R.N. Sydney Cove, Jan. 26th 1788".
Furthermore, Professor Irving noted "Australia Day" was celebrated on January 26 before 1948.
"The date was not chosen to celebrate the proclamation of the Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948. Rather, the 26th of January was chosen as the date of the proclamation of the Act because it was already celebrated as Australia Day," she said.
In fact, immigration minister Arthur Calwell told federal parliament in September 1948 that the Nationality and Citizenship Act "will be proclaimed on Australia Day, the 26th of January, 1949".
A parliamentary research paper by Margaret Harrison-Smith noted that Tasmania celebrated "Foundation Day" on January 26 from 1888.
In 1931 Victoria adopted the name Australia Day for the date, and since 1946, Ms Harrison-Smith writes, January 26 "has been recognised throughout Australia as Australia Day".
In addition, while the Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948 was significant it did not make Australia independent from Britain.
The Act created Australian citizenship (previously residents of Australia could be British subjects, rather than Australian citizens) and the conditions by which it could be acquired.
The main provisions of the Act were that: All Australian-born and other British subjects resident in Australia for the five years prior to 26 January 1949 were automatically Australian citizens; anyone born in Australia on or after that date was automatically an Australian citizen; anyone defined as an Australian citizen also became or retained the status of British subject.
Under the Act British subjects who wished to become Australian citizens could do so quickly and easily, whereas "foreigners" resident in Australia who were not British subjects faced a far more difficult task.
The United Kingdom remained a powerful legal and political influence in Australia. For example, appeals to Her Majesty in Council (from state Supreme Courts) were still possible until the passage of the Australia Act in 1986.
Appeals to the Privy Council in matters involving Federal legislation had been closed in 1968, and in 1975 appeals from the High Court to the Privy Council were closed off.
1975 was a notable year, with Prime Minister Gough Whitlam being dismissed by the viceregal representative, Governor General Sir John Kerr, on November 11, with the knowledge and approval of the Queen, further strengthening the case Australia did not achieve independence from Britain in 1949.
God Save The Queen remained Australia's national anthem until 1974, when Advance Australia Fair was adopted, and then God Save The Queen was reinstated in 1976 and remained the anthem until 1984, when Advance Australia Fair was restored.
Some argue that if any date could be cited as the one on which Australia achieved independence, it was March 3, 1986 - the passage of the Australia Act.
According to the long title of the Act, its purpose was "to bring constitutional arrangements affecting the Commonwealth and the States to be brought into conformity with the status of the Commonwealth of Australia as a sovereign, independent and federal nation".
The Act (passed by both the Australian and UK parliaments) eliminated the remaining possibilities for the United Kingdom to legislate with effect in Australia, for the UK to be involved in Australian government, and for an appeal from any Australian court to a British court.
