Western Australia Day or simply WA Day (formerly known as Foundation Day)King, Rhianna (2012)

– WA Today. Published 10 April 2012. Retrieved 10 April 2012. is a

public holiday A public holiday, national holiday, or legal holiday is a holiday generally established by law and is usually a non-working day during the year. Sovereign nations and territories observe holidays based on events of significance to their history, ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to t ...

(WA), celebrated on the first Monday in June each year to commemorate the founding of the

Swan River Colony The Swan River Colony, also known as the Swan River Settlement, or just Swan River, was a British colony established in 1829 on the Swan River, in Western Australia. This initial settlement place on the Swan River was soon named Perth, and it b ...

in 1829. Because of the date of Western Australia Day, WA does not have the

King's Official Birthday The King's Official Birthday (alternatively the Queen's Official Birthday when the monarch is female) is the selected day in the United Kingdom and most Commonwealth realms on which the birthday of the monarch is officially celebrated in those ...

public holiday in June, as do the other Australian states; it is held in September or October instead.

Background

HMS ''Challenger'', under Captain

Charles Fremantle Admiral Sir Charles Howe Fremantle GCB RN (1 June 1800 – 25 May 1869) was a renowned British Royal Navy officer. The city of Fremantle, Western Australia, is named after him. Early life Fremantle was the second son of Thomas Fremantle, an ...

, anchored off Garden Island on 25 April 1829. Fremantle officially claimed the western part of Australia for Britain on 2 May. The merchant vessel '' Parmelia'' – with the new colony's administrator Lieutenant-Governor James Stirling, other officials, and civilian

settler A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a pioneer. Settl ...

s on board – arrived on the night of 31 May and sighted the coast on 1 June. It finally anchored in

Cockburn Sound Cockburn Sound (Nyungar Aboriginal Australian name: Derbal Nara) is an inlet of the Indian Ocean on the coast of Western Australia. It extends from the south of the mouth of the Swan River at Fremantle for about 25 km to Point Peron n ...

on 6 June. The warship HMS ''Sulphur'' arrived on 8 June, carrying the British Army

garrison A garrison (from the French ''garnison'', itself from the verb ''garnir'', "to equip") is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a mil ...

. The Swan River Colony was officially proclaimed by Stirling on 11 June. Ships carrying more civilian settlers began arriving in August, and on the

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the ti ...

's birthday, 12 August, the wife of the captain of ''Sulphur'', Helena Dance, standing in for James Stirling's wife Ellen Stirling, cut down a tree to mark the founding of the colony's capital,

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

. In 1832, Stirling decided that an annual celebration was needed to unite the colony's inhabitants, including both settlers and

Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Island ...

and " masters and

servants A domestic worker or domestic servant is a person who works within the scope of a residence. The term "domestic service" applies to the equivalent occupational category. In traditional English contexts, such a person was said to be "in service ...

". He decided that the commemoration would be held on 1 June each year (or if a Sunday, on the following Monday), the date originally planned by Stirling for ''Parmelia''s arrival in recognition of the first and greatest British naval victory over the French in 1794, the "

Glorious First of June The Glorious First of June (1 June 1794), also known as the Fourth Battle of Ushant, (known in France as the or ) was the first and largest fleet action of the naval conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the First French Republic ...

". The holiday was celebrated as Foundation Day up until 2011; in 2012 it was renamed Western Australia Day as part of a series of law changes recognising Aboriginal Australians as the original inhabitants of Western Australia.

References

{{Authority control Public holidays in Australia June observances Society in Western Australia Winter events in Australia