When Christianity came to Australia

Most countries take at least one day a year to celebrate their nationhood and Australia do it on 26 January. On this day in 1788 Arthur Philip raised the British flag at Sydney Cove.

Australia Day is a public holiday across Australia with community festivals, concerts and citizenship ceremonies around the nation.

The Australian flag

The national flag of Australia has three components:
– The British flag in the top left hand corner shows Australia’s historical links with Great Britain.
– The federation star (beneath the British flag) with seven points representing the six states and the combined territories of the Commonwealth.
– A representation of the Southern Cross constellation (one small star and four larger stars, to the right of the British flag). The constellation of the Southern Cross is a significant navigational feature of the southern hemisphere and has been associated with Australia since its earliest days.

The certainty of colonization

Leo Maglen: “On no other continent have the original inhabitants been successful in holding on to their lands and traditional ways of life. Through waves of invasion, conquest, migration, settlement, by people ever more technologically and organisationally advanced, similarly nomadic hunter-gatherers either adapted, or were forced into ever more remote, inaccessible and inhospitable terrain, as in Asia, Africa and the Americas, or driven to extinction, as in Europe and the Middle-East. What is remarkable in the case of Australia is that it hadn’t happened earlier, and that the first inhabitants were able to enjoy their idyll for as long as they did. So if it hadn’t been the British, it would have been someone else, or a bunch of others, contesting the terrain, carving it up, claiming it as their own. Given the location of ‘the Great South Land’, there was, however, only a shortlist of likely contenders, with the requisite technological and organisational capacity, the global reach and the territorial ambitions, to accomplish the feat, either on a full-scale or piecemeal basis…. Although they didn’t appreciate it at the time, Phillip probably gave the first inhabitants as good a chance of surviving in, and adapting to, the global world as any ‘invader’ could have given them, and the waves of immigrants that subsequently came, and are still coming, to these shores, a much freer, safer, fairer, equitable, open, tolerant and prosperous place in which to start a new life than might otherwise have been the case.”

John Slater: “If you look across the globe, it’s striking to note how few countries and civilizations haven’t been blighted by conquest at some point in history. Even Great Britain, the greatest colonial power the world has ever seen, endured a period of bloody occupation by the Romans early in its history.”

Jo Derller: “We are celebrating the creation and the continuing existence and growth of a new nation, which came about through the British colonization of Australia. If the British had not colonized Australia, another power would have done it and there would be no Australia today, and no Australia Day to celebrate.”

The benefits of colonization

Kevin Donnelly: “The arrival of the First Fleet is one of the most important events in Australian history as it represents the first step in our development as a liberal, Western democracy based on English common law and a Westminster Parliamentary system. The rights and freedoms we now take for granted, including freedom of assembly and speech, the right to a fair and timely trial, and the right to vote and elect a representative government, trace their origins to events that occurred on January 26, 1788. As argued by the Perth legal academic, Augusto Zimmerman, “When the penal colony of New South Wales was established in 1788, the laws of England were transplanted into Australia” and “As a result, the legal sociopolitical institutions of Australia found their primary roots in the legal and sociopolitical traditions of England” … The arrival of the First Fleet, in addition to bequeathing the nation with an English legal and political system also heralded the arrival of Christianity … without Christian hospitals, schools and charitable organisations Australian’s education, health and welfare sectors would collapse. Christian concepts like the dignity of the person, the right to individual liberty and a commitment to social justice and the common good also underpin our legal and political systems and way of life.”

Kurt Mahlburg: “Colonization ultimately brought incalculable benefits to Aboriginal people too — including human rights; the rule of law; modern medicine, science and technology; roads, bridges and other infrastructure; literacy and education; improved agriculture and nutrition; advanced industry, opportunities for employment and upward mobility; vastly longer lifespans and increased standards of living; and contact with other cultures’ perspectives, philosophies, art, sport, leisure activities and more.”

“Most important of all, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders heard the good news of Jesus Christ, and still today, a high proportion of Indigenous Australians treasure their Christian faith and are deeply grateful the gospel came to their shores.”

Conclusion

Let’s celebrate our peaceful, prosperous and stable country — that’s why so many migrants want to live here.

Happy Australia Day!

Acknowledgement

This post is based on the articles listed below.

References

Kurt Mahlburg: 10 Reasons to Celebrate Australia Day on the 26th of January
Kurt Mahlburg: Why Australia Day Still Matters: A Conversation with Kurt Mahlburg
Bill Muehlenberg: Australia Day or Invasion Day?

Posted, 26 January 2026