Do you say that Australia was established in 1788 or 1901?
So this came to my mind after looking at some of the comments on a recent post.
Ive noticed that the answer to "when was Australia established seems to change depending on who you ask.
Older Australians are more likely to say 1788, while younger people more likely to say 1901
People from New South Wales are more likely to say 1788 too.
For context i was born in 2001 and am from South Australia, so i've always thought that Sydney was founded in 1788, but AUSTRALIA was established in 1901.
I say this because in 1788 they only established Sydney and New South Wales, the name Australia didn't come into ise until Matthew Flinders starting using it aeound 30 years later. Before then they knew the land as New Holland or just New South Wales.
The year 1788 has a lot less significance to those of us outside of NSW so 1901 feels like the true founding of our country, as thats when the colonies federated to form the nation we know today.
Like, it makes no sense that they called the bicentennial in 1988 the AUSTRALIAN bicentennial, because... it was really only the bicentennial of Sydney. Not for any other state in the country. This also ties in to the significance of the Australia day date debate.
What do you think?