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J.E. Menaude, A Centenary History of the Australian Natives’ Association 1871-1971 [1971]

The Australian Natives’ Assocation was a friendly society that attracted thousands of members and played a central role in the campaign for federation. Its name did not refer to Indigenous Australians, but ‘native born’ white men, at a time when a very large proportion of the population were born overseas.

However, by the poor standards of the time the ANA was comparatively progressive on Indigenous issues, pushing for the use of Aboriginal place names, celebrating aspects of Aboriginal culture, and offering some critique of the mistreatment of Indigenous people. It was also quite progressive in backing the introduction of female suffrage, and being deliberately non-sectarian (going so far as to ban the discussion of religion) at a time when many friendly societies were explicitly based on the Protestant-Catholic divide. Counterbalancing these views was the fact that the ANA was a consistent advocate for White Australia, at a time when this policy had overwhelming public support.

Many Australian prime ministers from both sides of politics were highly active members of the ANA, including Edmund Barton, Alfred Deakin, James Scullin and Francis Forde. The organisation had been founded in Victoria on 24 April 1871, and though it branched out into the other colonies, its membership always remained strongest there. Menzies’s father James Menzies had been a founding member of the Jeparit branch, and as an active politician Robert Menzies himself would several times give speeches addressing ANA meetings.

One such occasion of particular importance was in 1940, when as Prime Minister Menzies gave the principal toast at the ANA’s Australia Day celebration. It was in fact the ANA which was largely responsible for the adoption of January 26 as our national holiday. The day had long been revered as an auspicious date, which was frequently used for momentous political events such as William Wentworth’s petitions for colonial self-government, or the founding of the first branch of the Anti-Transportation Leagues (which led a campaign against convict transportation which was the first to unite the colonies, and which helped to precipitate the granting of self-government). But it had otherwise been viewed as a New South Wales specific occasion, celebrated in Sydney with an annual grand regatta. The other colonies maintained their own founding celebrations, such as South Australia’s Proclamation Day (28 December) or Western Australia’s Foundation Day (1 June).

Although Victoria celebrated its own Separation Day, members of the ANA felt that these separate celebrations were all terribly parochial and that all Australians should celebrate on the same day. From 1886 they campaigned for the adoption of 26 January as the national day, under the premise that the Australian story was not six separate stories, but a single one that began with the first settlement. The campaign would prove to be a long and arduous one, as even after federation Australians still primarily celebrated Empire Day 24 May as the main patriotic occasion.

It was not until 1935 that 26 January began to be universally referred to as Australia Day, with the backing of Prime Minister Joseph Lyons – though there is evidence it had already achieved significant recognition before this. For example, in 1931, the Archbishop of Canterbury gave a special Australia Day service in London.

While Lyons had given the tick of approval to January 26, it was arguably Robert Menzies who was the first Australian Prime Minister to fully embrace the occasion. In 1940 he not only addressed the ANA, but gave a special Australia Day Broadcast over the BBC. In 1950, he declared that Australia Day was to be a national public holiday, though the states were still primarily responsible for setting their own holidays, and the public holiday was generally observed on the nearest Monday. By 1952, Australia Day had achieved clear international recognition, and Menzies was receiving official Australia Day messages from foreign leaders such as US President Truman or Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida.

Menzies’s approach towards the day was very in keeping with the Burkean conception of ‘a partnership between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born’. It was through reflecting on what the early Australian pioneers had achieved that present citizens came to understand their obligations to both the nation and to future generations. Menzies understood the power and importance of a positive national story, arguing that ‘National pride is deeply founded on a sense of history, of self-respect, of achievement. The nations which have contributed most to the history of the improvement of mankind have been those in which a sense of national unity was predominant’.

This sentiment is embodied in Menzies’s Australia Day message for 1963:

‘Australia Day is for both memory and decision. What great events have moved across the face of Australia since January 26, 1788!

We can look back with pride on what has been achieved in almost every field of life. In this sense we are the inheritors of the work of the past. But this does not mean that we can be content merely to live on our inheritance. We must add to it, so that future generations will look back on what we have done with a pride similar to that with which we regard the work of our predecessors. In this sense, Australia Day is an occasion for renewing our determination to build soundly on the existing foundations, to develop new resources, to build up a wider and fuller civilisation. In short, we must see ourselves as the present pioneers of an even better Australian future. Particularly in times of great prosperity, we may be tempted to regard ourselves as beneficiaries and to forget that we must be contributors as well. I have no doubt whatever that the national character will continue to rise to the challenge of the future, not ignoring difficulties or pretending they don’t exist, but with complete confidence in our capacity to overcome them and to play our part in what should be a notable national growth in the years to come.’