Wattle Day

On 10 August 1853 in Launceston, during "Cessation of Transportation Celebrations" the procession marched under a triumphal arch decorated with wattle blossom.

[5] It was suggested that for future regattas, the event should be celebrated by the wearing of a sprig of silver wattle blossom (Acacia dealbata) tied with British Navy blue ribbon.

When Adam Lindsay Gordon died in 1870 he was buried "where the wattle blossoms wave" - a quotation from his poem "The sick Stockrider".

Members should "at all suitable public assemblies wear a spray of wattle blossom either real or artificial, as a distinctive badge".

It was initiated by Archibald James Campbell, a leading ornithologist and field naturalist with a particular passion for Australian wattles, of which there are more than 1,000 species.

[11] For several years the club organised bush outings on the first day in September specifically for the appreciation of wattles in their natural setting.

Its purpose was to present to the various state governments a unified proposal for a national day on which to celebrate the wattle blossom.

A formal ceremony was held in the National Botanic Gardens on 1 September, at which Maria Hitchcock was a guest of the government.

With the aid of ABC's Ian McNamara, whose Sunday morning national program Australia All Over focuses on all things Australian, the message went out resulting in hundreds of letters of support being sent to the prime minister.

The campaign was not progressing until Hitchcock met with Senator Graham Richardson at a Labor Party event in Armidale.

Soon after the decision was made to gazette the emblem at a special ceremony in Canberra at the Australian National Botanic Gardens on 1 September.

that she would have to personally gain letters of approval for the gazettal of National Wattle Day from each premier and chief minister.

Hitchcock bundled all the letters together and sent them to Canberra requesting gazettal of National Wattle Day for 1 September each year.