The 11th of October, 1979 was the day after my 30th birthday.
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It was also the first time the Commonwealth government's National Australia Day Committee met together after being appointed by prime minister Malcolm Fraser.
The committee was created to "advise and coordinate efforts to foster the observance of Australia Day" and "as a matter of urgency, advise on whether Australia Day should be celebrated each year on 26 January".
I was appointed secretary of the National Australia Day Committee having just finished working on the "Life. Be In It" fitness program which was extremely successful. Mr Fraser must have thought I could perform miracles twice.
Mr Fraser appointed four-minute mile runner and Olympic gold medallist Herb Elliott as the chairman of NADC, as well as a collection of other Australian high achievers including the world's fastest water-speeder Ken Warby; former Miss Australia and Miss international, Tania Verstak (then Mrs Young); TV's No. 1 star of the day, Mike Walsh; national Aboriginal leader Galarrawuy Yunupingu; capital city newspaper editor Harry Gordon; and retired ambassador to Vietnam during the war and Australia's representative at the United Nations, Ralph Harry.
To say the new committee had a giant task on its hands is to understate its challenge as it had also been expected to "report on steps that might be taken to foster national pride."
Mr Fraser must have thought Australia had a shortage of national pride in 1979 and his thinking proved it, as he himself spent January 26 that year in India celebrating its annual Republic Day which is also marked on that date.
The job ahead of Herb Elliott's committee was clearly given the job of turning it around.
Not only was the PM out of the country on Australia Day but there were only two events in the nation that marked it: An Australia Day dinner at the Melbourne town hall in Victoria and a separate Australia Day lunch on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra.
The rejection of January 26 as Australia's day of celebration was because in 1979, as in many years before, Australia Day was moved to the next weekend to make it into a long weekend.
Incredible as it is, when January 26 fell on a Tuesday, Australia's national day was celebrated in February.
Bound by the government's "matter of urgency" request, the committee got busy surveying the people's opinions of their preferred date for Australia Day.
Needless to say the Aboriginal community was surveyed at top of the list first, followed by the communities of new Australians who had come to Australia in the thousands to help build the country after World War II, and the third group of Australians who were born-here.
As secretary of the committee it was my job to make sure the committee had everything it needed to achieve its duties.
To this end I prepared an information paper of possible alternative dates to replace January 26 should the public surveys favour a new date.
The task wasn't as easy as one might think.
The obvious date to replace January 26 was the day Australia became a nation - January 1, 1901 - but that was already New Year's Day and already a public holiday.
Other possible dates included: April 25 when our soldiers proved themselves to be heroic but that's taken a Anzac Day; the day the sport stops the nation (first Tuesday in November) but that's Melbourne Cup day; and September 1, Wattle Day, while suitable to some, 4 million Australians suffered from hay fever at the time and it was considered inappropriate to deny them the chance to attend outdoor activities for their national day.
There were others, but a replacement day wasn't making its date clear.
On the other hand, January 26 was proving popular.
By this time the professional surveys were put to work alongside the committee members who were busy asking around to form an opinion.
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In a few months, the nation's preferences became clear.
Firstly, they wanted Australia Day to be celebrated on January 26, not the Monday afterwards. "Would the United States hold the 4th of July on any other day?" was a common comment. "No!" was the response, so we shouldn't either!
Next, many respondents wanted local councils to be supported to host local events on the public holiday with help from the federal and state governments.
And finally, the day January 26 was significantly the most popular date for the holiday.
Interestingly, many said it had nothing to do with ships landing but it was the perfect date for packing up after Christmas holidays and preparing kids for school the week after.
The committee reported to the government and the people's wish was honoured.
After two years as chairman Herb Elliott was replaced by another great Australian, tennis superstar John Newcombe who joined a new committee including Australian achievers such as actress Jacki Weaver, swimming champion Dawn Fraser, rugby star Mark Ella and others.
After many years of being created for the Australian people by many of our most popular, most loved and most Australian citizens, how is it that some of us think we can just reject the achievements and work of these super Australian achievers just because we're not good enough to do it?
Australia Day was brought to life in 1980 as the one day of 365 each year that we get the chance to be true Australians together and celebrate the fact that we're all living in one of the greatest countries on this planet.
So if you can't run a four-minute mile, win tennis at Wimbledon seven times, swim to win gold Olympic medals three times or be judged Miss Australia and Miss international, you can still do your best to be a proud Australian.
As far as turning your back on our one and only Australia Day, the Americans lead the way: Australia: Love it or Leave it!
- Frank Cassidy was secretary of the National Australia Day Committee from 1979 to 1985. As a republican he was elected by the people of the ACT to represent them at the 1998 Constitutional Convention.
