1. Australia Day celebrates the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney cove in 1788 when the land was claimed for Great Britain under the rule of King George III.
2. formal proclamation of the colony and of Arthur Phillip’s governorship was read out, even though the holiday is celebrated on January 26.
3. The tradition of having Australia Day as a national holiday on 26 January is a recent one. All of the Australian states and territories didn’t start using that name until 1935, and it wasn’t until 1994 that they began to celebrate Australia Day consistently as a public holiday on January 26.
4. The first official Australia Day celebration was in 1818 when the governor organized celebrations that included a 30 gun salute and a dinner at Government House followed by a ball.
5. New South Wales was the first state to declare Australia Day as a public holiday in 1838, the fiftieth anniversary of the landing at Sydney Cove, but it was called “Anniversary Day” until the mid 1940’s.
6. Great Britain didn’t stop sending convicts to Australia until the 1860s and the reason was the rising costs of keeping the system going.
7. The HMS Supply was the first ship of the First Fleet to land in Botany Bay. It was both the oldest and smallest of ships in the fleet, built in 1759 an armed trader.
8. The approximate number of convicts sent to Australia was 160,500, of whom 24,700 were women!

And do not forget to stay updated with the official Australia day website!