In January 1788, the eleven ships of the First Fleet made landing at what was later named Sydney Cove in New South Wales. The ships carried 1,373 people from Britain, around half of whom were convicts, to form the basis for the first colony in Australia. 

Anzac Day marks the first involvement of Australian troops in the First World War, and has become a major event on the nationalist calendar. The Australian War Memorial says it commemorates the “spirit of Anzac, with its human qualities of courage, mateship, and sacrifice, [which] continues to have meaning for our sense of national identity”.