Actually, 26th January is known as 'Australia Day', the anniversary of the date in 1788 when the First Fleet arrived.
January 1, 2001 was the 100th anniversary of Federation, the date when in 1901 the separate colonies formed the Commonwealth of Australia.
I suppose to explain it in 'US-centric' terms, 26th January is OUR version of the date your Mayflower reached shore, whilst 1st January is OUR version of your Declaration of Independence.
And we recently held a referendum on whether to ditch our existing constitutional monarchy, and replace it with a republic. We voted against the republic, mainly I believe on the grounds that the bloody politicians wanted to be able to appoint the President directly with a 2/3 majority of parliament, rather than have the public elect a president directly.
After watching the recent balls-up in Florida, maybe a consitutional monarchy ain't so bad after all
[This message has been edited by Jekyll (edited 01-29-2001).]