The celebration of wattle … a history

Adam Lindsay Gordon was obviously an early admirer of the wattle tree, as he described them fondly in many of his poems.

Elizabeth Lauder (nee Bright), a personal friend of Gordon when he worked in the south-east of South Australia, in 1884 sent money to the sexton at Brighton Cemetery, to plant a wattle and other flowers on his grave. She paid for the upkeep of the grave from 1870 to 1900, and regularly sent floral tributes. The first wattle cutting she sent died but the two more were subsequently planted and grew well for many years until a storm caused the demise of one. The other grew to a great height before being removed. However, its seeds were saved and grown.

The Wattle Day movement had its beginnings in 1889 when the Australian Natives’ Association (ANA), a male-only organisation formed in 1871, proposed a motion by its vice-president of the Adelaide branch William J Sowden, at a meeting on 20 September 1889, to form a ladies’ society in conjunction with the ANA, to ‘advertise the objects of the ANA outside of its own membership’, This was to be known as the Wattle Blossom League.

The proposal was officially approved at the ANA’s first annual conference on 13 March 1890, followed five days later by the first wattle blossom social, held in the Adelaide Town Hall, and attended principally by ladies, but all wearing a sprig of wattle blossom (Acacia pycnantha), a tradition insisted upon at all meetings. There was the first rendering of a song titled ‘Australia’, written by Mr CC Presgrave, set to music by Herr M Heuzenroeder, and sung by Mr R Nitschke.

The Wattle Blossom League also designed its own flag in January 1891. However, later that year some prominent members of the League withdrew and it dissolved.

Following the activities of the South Australian League, in February 1891, a Melbourne newspaper proposed that wattle should become Australia’s national floral emblem. The next significant event was the formation in 1899 of a ‘Wattle Club’ in Victoria by field naturalist Archibald J Campbell. For several years the club organised bush outings on the first day in September.

The first Wattle Day was held in Hobart in 1838 to mark 50 years of British settlement in the Australian colonies.

Following the Federation of Australia on 1 January 1901, enthusiasm for a national day of celebration began across the country. The first suggestion of a Wattle Day was made by Mr Campbell during a speech in Melbourne in September 1908 and in August 1909 a public meeting held in Sydney agreed to encourage the coordination of all states in this endeavour. By July 1910 a branch of the Wattle Day League was started in South Australia, with Will Sowden as its Vice-President. Another branch began in Melbourne by AJ Campbell in September that year. The first ‘national’ Wattle Day was celebrated in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide on 1 September 1910. Queensland followed in 1913 and that year Sydney planted 200 wattle trees in Centennial Park.

Although plans to celebrate Wattle Day nationally were interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War, Wattle Day served as a strong symbol of patriotism during the war with the Red Cross using it as a focus for fundraising for the war effort. Early Wattle Day activities included planting of wattle trees in school grounds, school lessons on botany, street decorations of wattle blossom, and wearing sprigs of wattle, often sold for charity.

Wider acceptance of a national Wattle Day was achieved at a major Australian Wattle Day League Conference in Melbourne in January 1913. Branches were formed in a number of states, and the golden wattle was incorporated into the design of the Australian Coat of Arms in 1912 following the recommendation of Prime Minister Andrew Fisher.

[For further information, see The Wayfarer June 2025, Adam Lindsay Gordon Commemorative Committee Inc.]