The 2025 & any future editions of Australia Day In Sydney will be coordinated by Destination New South Wales (NSW) with the advice of the Australia Day Council of NSW, which has reduced in membership from 6 members to just 3 in the past few months, leading to the 1st ever Indigenous-majority Council.
Destination NSW is the NSW Government’s tourism & major events agency. They already have produced the signature Australia Day In Sydney event, Australia Day LIVE! since 2016 as well as flagship Sydney Spectacular, Vivid Sydney, which they have owned & managed as well since the agency’s inception in 2011.
The NSW Government’s Premier’s Department was the former coordinator of Australia Day In Sydney since 2013.
Destination NSW will work in collaboration & with the advice of the Australia Day Council Of NSW to coordinate the Sydney events, just as the Premier’s Department did.
The Australia Day Council of NSW was established by the NSW Government in 1981 & was the sole coordinator until 2013 before taking on a purely advisory role. In 2024, the Council was reduced from 6 members to just 3 in a single go sometime since mid-October last year, after having 7 members last edition. As far as we can tell, the largest the Council ever got was a peak of 18 members between 2002 & 2003. It has slowly reduced in size since, stabilising at around 14 members in the early 2010’s roughly when Barry O’Farrell was NSW Premier, before resuming the decline. This current decline is on par with recent declines.
Councillors were appointed by the NSW Premier, currently Chris Minns. In the past month, appointments and also ultimately the day’s coordination are now the NSW Minister For Jobs & Tourism’s responsibility. The current holder of that role is John Graham.
1 councillor we can confirm resigned. The other 2 including the former chair advised the NSW Government that they weren’t seeking reappointment. Australia Day In Sydney has confirmed new Council members will be announced soon with the Council remaining committed to representing the diverse interests of the community.
The 3 remaining councillors are Yvonne Weldon in the role as chair (previously deputy chair since 2020) & Greg Daniel and Faye McMillan. Yvonne Weldon & Faye McMillian are Indigenous members, meaning this is the 1st ever Indigenous-majority Council by 2-1.
Yvonne Weldon is well known as the Deputy Chairperson of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, featuring prominently at Sydney New Year’s Eve & Australia Day In Sydney events in that role. She is also a City Of Sydney councillor. Maintaining strong ties to her homelands of Cowra & the Riverina areas of NSW, she is a proud Wiradjuri woman whilst also keeping a strong passion for improving everyone’s lives through health, education, research, evaluation and the rights of children and Aboriginal people, the latter whose communities she is committed to change positively. She has been on the Australia Day Council Of NSW since 2019.
Greg Daniel is the National Practice Leader for SR7, which he founded in 2008. It is widely recognised as Australia’s leading social media intelligence and research firm & became a division of KPMG in 2014. He has been on the Australia Day Council of NSW since 2012.
Faye McMillan is Australia’s first registered Aboriginal pharmacist. She is a Doctor Of Health Science & is the director of the Djirruwang Program at Charles Sturt University. She seeks to use her own lived experiences to make a difference & share the transformative opportunities that education can provide by researching into nation building, mental health and Indigenous female leaders. She has been on the Australia Day Council Of NSW since 2019.
Above the Australia Day Council of NSW, which coordinates Sydney & NSW events, is the National Australia Day Council, who coordinates over all of Australia. They currently have a council of 9 people, chaired by Australia Day In Sydney creative director, John Foreman, all appointed by the Australian Prime Minister, currently Anthony Albanese. 3 members are Indigenous.
Australia Day In Sydney, as it has always been, is not a single event but rather an umbrella term for multiple independent events, all coordinated by Destination NSW on the advice of the Australia Day Council of NSW. Sydney Spectaculars recognises Australia Day LIVE! (since 2019), Dawn Reflection (since 2021) & Harbourfest (since 2022 in various forms) as the main events in Sydney under that umbrella term.
The program of Sydney events for the 2025 edition will be unveiled within the next week with all 3 events mentioned in the previous sentence already confirmed as returning.
Australia Day In Sydney 2025 is held on the 26th of January.
Opinion
Whilst the Australia Day Council of NSW would still have significant influence on what is on the Sydney event program, it would not be a surprise if the focus of the day gradually shifts over the years from a celebration of Australia to a promotion of Sydney. The fact the Premier’s Department is no longer coordinating the Sydney events probably signals that the Premier Of NSW is beginning a subtle transition away from the controversial date, which for the Indigenous people of the country is one that marks invasion, which also commenced in the place now known as Sydney. It’s a symbolic gesturing that the Premier is wiping his hands clean of organising Australia Day around NSW, at least on the current date, leaving it to a Minister.
This minister, the Minister For Jobs & Tourism, will have to be very cautious that if Destination NSW takes its tourism marketing role to heart with the Sydney event program that they do not go overboard & try to present such a sparkling rosy image of Sydney that they do not, whether accidentally or deliberately, acknowledge what happened to the Indigenous people from that date in 1788. Australia Day In Sydney isn’t an event program that potential international tourists would be interested in but potential domestic tourists from around Australia to NSW would be so there would still be cause to attempt marketing but Australians should already know enough history to know that Sydney on that date in 1788 wasn’t one without consequence and make their future travel plans accordingly & even if they know just enough, researching the history in more depth, particularly from an Indigenous perspective, would help in fulfilling the Indigenous peoples’ wish for them to have the full truth told to them about that date & the consequences of that date’s events until the present day including & especially on the 26th of January.
Notable is the fact it is now the 1st Indigenous-majority Council. This should be a strong counter to any spick & sparkle tourism marketing from Destination NSW but it raises questions of the future of the day in New South Wales. It sends a strong signal that Australia Day in New South Wales & Sydney, the birthplace of that anniversary, is currently no longer a day to be celebrated. As the reduced Council settles in with an Indigenous majority, it is possible that from the next edition, a stronger transition will begin, though no doubt still slowly and subtly to avoid media-driven controversies, from a day of celebration to a day of mourning. After the transition finishes, it would be a fine guess that the only events on the program would be Dawn Reflection, WugulOra Morning Ceremony & the Yabun Festival with a stronger focus on the consequences of the landing at Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788. No doubt it wouldn’t be called Australia Day by then. Day Of Mourning is the likeliest with its reference back to 1938. Invasion/Survival Day, whilst still being used by the Indigenous community, wouldn’t resonate as much with non-Indigenous people. If this happened, Sydney Spectaculars would review giving Dawn Reflection a flagship Sydney Spectacular status given the day would formally transition from celebration to mourning in NSW.
This leads to the final question, with the states/territories holding the power to determine public holidays, will the NSW Government mark a new date for Australia Day & rename the current Australia Day to Day Of Mourning, treating it akin to ANZAC Day? After all, if the purpose of a Council is to, well, council – a 2-1 Indigenous majority on the Australia Day Council Of NSW suggests a renaming/dating recommendation could be made.
Back when we designated Australia Day LIVE! a flagship Sydney Spectacular in 2019, we discussed the date & its implications for the future. Firstly, any date between the 20th January & 7th February would be ruled out as the latter is the date the colony of NSW was formally created while the former is when the 1st Fleet was in visual sight from land. Changing the date to these dates just brings everyone back to square one.
Secondly, possible new dates for Australia Day: January the 1st. It was when the colonies federated in 1901 to form Australia. Whilst there is precedent for celebrations on that date, notably the Centenary Of Federation in 2001, it is right after a big night for Australians – New Year’s Eve plus it is an existing public holiday, New Year’s Day. Whilst this would be an improvement in terms of controversy, it wouldn’t solve the problem. The Indigenous population did not have full citizen/subject rights until the late 1960’s so this date just represents the consequences Europeans brought to them as becoming more permanent as 6 colonies combined into 1 federated Commonwealth.
Next, there is the 3rd of March 1986. The date the Australia Act 1986 commenced, which granted Australia the complete right to legislate without needing the United Kingdom. It began at precisely 4pm Australian Eastern Daylight Time. Adding this date would give Australians an extra public holiday. This date is all but a complete improvement on January the 1st. The fact that the Monarch Of Australia is currently King Charles III is the only damper on this date.
The best date though is actually one that we do not know the date of yet – the day when formal Australian recognition of the Indigenous culture & reconciliation between the Indigenous peoples and Australia occurs. This still has to be realised to this day especially after 2023’s referendum. It should be pointed that whilst the United Kingdom and since 1986, Australia, always considered the Indigenous population as one of them (that is, British subjects or Australian citizens, despite the Indigenous population not having full citizen/subject rights until the late 1960’s), the Indigenous peoples were & are still ‘separate’ despite living in the same locations or sharing multiple ‘citizenships’ & cultures. Reconciliation is the formal act of uniting our peoples – most obviously, by a treaty. The day that happens a new national day will be born. Another date that would add an extra public holiday. It may even have a new name entirely…
…as long as it doesn’t happen between the 20th of January and the 7th of February and/or on an existing public holiday.
Sydney Spectaculars 
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