Public Holiday

Proclamation Day celebrates the official founding of South Australia as a British colony in the early 1800s. 28 December in 1836 is remembered in South Australia as “Proclamation Day” because it was then that Captain John Hindmarsh stood by the Old Gum Tree and read the official proclamation of the new colony’s existence. The date of Proclamation Day was later moved from 28 December to the first work day following Christmas, which is typically 26 December. Reenactments of the events of South Australia’s founding, however, are still held on the 28th by the remains of the Old Gum Tree.