Canada Day

Canada Day is the anniversary of the Confederation of Canada on 1 July, 1867.
http://canadaday.gc.ca/eng/1402068737686/1402077241673

On 1 July, 1867, Canada united to become a self-governing dominion of Great Britain with the confederation of four British Colonies: Nova Scotia; New Brunswick; Ontario; and Quebec.

Canada Day is celebrated as Canada’s Birthday.
http://www.statutoryholidays.com/canadaday.php

Australia Day

Australia Day is not celebrated as the anniversary of the Federation of Australia on 1 January, 1901.

On 1 January, 1901, Australia united to become a self-governing dominion of Great Britain with the Federation of the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania, and Western Australia. Australia Day is not celebrated as Australia’s Birthday, but as the anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet of Convict ships from Great Britain on 26 January, 1788.

There can be no doubt that Australia Day, like Canada Day, should have always been held on the Nation’s Birthday. But, as the 1st of January is already a Public Holiday - it must fall to the day before:

"The Commonwealth of Australia, by contrast, did not evolve over the centuries. At the stroke of midnight on 31 December 1900 it sprang into existence in an instant, its Constitution with it, fully- armed like the goddess Pallas Athena.

S.E.K. Hulme
Samuel Griffith Society
http://www.samuelgriffith.org.au/papers/html/volume%201/chap2.htm

Like Canada , Australia has shuffled clumsily into a sort of independence in practice but a sharp lawyer could bring it all down.
" The Australia Act 1986 is the name given to a pair of laws: one an Act of the Commonwealth of Australia, the other an Act of the United Kingdom.. because of uncertainty as to which of the two parliaments had the ultimate authority to do so.

The Australia Act (Cth and UK) eliminated the remaining possibilities for the UK 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

Appeals to the Privy Council from decisions of the High Court were effectively ended by Acs of 1968 and the 1975. However, appeal remained from State courts, until 1986 .
The Commonwealth version refers to Australia as " an independent and federal nation". While this might be understood as a declaration of independence,., leaving open the question of when independence had been attained. There is no earlier declaration or grant of independence ".
The Oz constitution has not changed so technically , we're still under the Privy Council of British Lords and pollies. UK is out of the EU (almost) so we're all in the same wobbly mixup . Australia may ship its convicts and boat-people to the terra nullius of Yorkshire moors.

Yes, but I guess the question is whether or not you see January 26th as Australia's legal birthday, or Federation on JAN 1/DEC31 as Australia's legal birthday?

Easy. 29 April 1770 , Jimmy Cook gave it to George. "birthday" day of one's birth.

Yes, we could call it New Holland Day?

Yes , England was Dutch.
" In the Netherlands, Saxons occupied the territory south of the Frisians and north of the Franks. In the west it reached as far as the Gooi region, in the south as far as the Lower Rhine. The Saxon duchy of Hamaland played an important role in the formation of the duchy of Guelders.

The local language, although strongly influenced by standard Dutch, is still officially recognised as Dutch Low Saxon."

The Queen is Hanoverian German but as the Kaiser has left the building , then Holland's royals get the lot.

In fact, the continent was still known as New Holland in 1788.
So, Australia did not exist in name even in 1788.

So, yes under the same misguided logic you could choose the date Captain Cooke claimed the eastern seaboard of New Holland on August 22, 1770. There is no difference between January 26th and August 22nd.

http://www.nma.gov.au/online_features/defining_moments/featured/cook_claims_australia

Some Historic Maps of New Holland
http://www.acmssearch.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/itemDetailPaged.cgi?itemID=404927

Nah, shifting it to Dec 31/Jan 1 is a silly idea because it gets in the way of New Years.

April 4, 1817 was the first time the continent was officially referred to as Australia. This is a much better date, even though it will occasionally get in the way of Easter.

New Holland was Australische for the Dutch.

" A Terra Australis "land of the south" appeared on world maps from the 15th century, . This theory of balancing land is on record as early as the 5th century on maps by Macrobius., a fifth-century Roman philosopher.

The Ancient Greeks conceived the idea of a southern landmass to counterbalance the land in the north. Aristotle named this imagined southern land ‘Antarktikos’, but his birthday is unknown and "Aristotle Day" is not easy and may be swearing. Yanks say "Arstralia", the Queen "Horsetrailia".

1625 in "A note of Australia del Espíritu Santo, written by Sir Richard Hakluyt", for an island in Vanuatu,. The Dutch Australische in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south.

The name Australia was specifically applied to the continent for the first time in 1793 Zoology and Botany of New Holland,.

31 December is a work day, its not a public holiday.

In terms of the Summer Solstice it is pretty close to Canada's July 1.
It would also provide us with a 4 day weekend in certain years.

Canada needs the sun.
The Australia Day prison didn't get built until construction on Darlinghurst Gaol wall began in 1822.

On 22 August 1770, James Cook claimed the coastline as British territory and first named the land " New Wales", with the birthday of
Edward I being 18 June 1239. He put English boots into Wales in June 1276.

//31 December is a work day, its not a public holiday.//

I know. But since there is already a public holiday on New Years Day, we don't need one on New Years Eve. Two public holidays back-to-back is a waste.

I'm used to the public holiday being where it is, but I've no objection to shifting it - as long as it doesn't get lost or wasted in the process. Shifting it to a rubbish date for reasons of pomp and circumstance and tradition is complete f*&king bollocks. Shifting it to a new date that is practical is fine. 4/4 is good, but there is always the Easter issue. I reckon a date in early September would be the best choice of all.

Now we just have to find some pointless milestone to celebrate in early September and we're set.

The two specific dates that are directly tied to the establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia are "January 1st" and "September 17th". But, celebrations began on December 31 and the Inauguration of the new Commonwealth was celebrated in all towns and cities at midnight New Years Eve.

Any other dates randomly chosen would be just as meaningless as Convict Day (Jan 26).

Queen Victoria, Proclamation, 17 September 1900.

We do hereby declare that on and after the first Day of January one thousand nine hundred and one, the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia shall be united in a Federal Commonwealth under the name of the Commonwealth of Australia.

We should be careful with celebrating birthdays, look what happened with the Queens Birthday, a particularly difficult delivery. It seems it all started on October 2nd, most of us just call that Labour Day, that's when labour started,. except the silly cane toads, who thought it was an easy birth and her majesty popped out then, they all went off to the pub for a XXXX and haven't returned since, the cane toads are still wrongly celebrating October 2nd, as the Queens Birthday, they have been having such a good time of it, no has the heart to tell em' they got it wrong . Not so, seems the West Australian's had detected labour pains a week earlier on September 25th and thought here she comes, unfortunately a false alarm, but no one told the sand grouper's, so they have been blissfully celebrating September 25th as the Queens Birthday ever since. In the rest of Australia we waited patiently for an announcement from Buck House, we waited and we waited, the announcement came via Captain Cook, June 12th, that the Queen Mum, that's the mother of the Queen for those who don't know, had, had a bouncing baby girl. Something was lost in the translation, it was probably due to Cook's pommy accent. when we found out that she had actually been born April 21st, we were all ready to celebrate! Until some bright spark pointed out April 21st 1926 had been a Wednesday. We all looked at each other, and declared we didn't care what day she was born, but we are having a day off on a Monday!
I actually favor Monday 13th March for the Queen Birthday holiday, March, nice time of the year. Unfortunately March 13th is Adelaide Cup Day, and I don't want to upset anyone who is celebrating something of more importance and significance than the Queens Birthday, like the Adelaide Cup.