1 September is National Wattle Day — first day of spring in the old calendar sense, and a sprig of gold in the buttonhole if youre doing it properly. The push was organised in Sydney: the Wattle Day League formed at the Royal Society rooms in 1909, with Botanic Gardens director J.H. Maiden as president. Coordinated celebrations ran in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide on 1 September 1910.
The golden wattle (Acacia pycnantha) was proclaimed Australia’s national floral emblem on 1 September 1988. Governor-General Bill Hayden formally declared National Wattle Day for 1 September each year in 1992. Live text that has a Governor-General “gazetting” the day in 1913, or that says green-and-gold simply “originated” at Centennial Park in 1901, over-compresses the story. Federation day in the Park is real; the colour proclamation is much later (19 April 1984, same day as the anthem). Wear the wattle; don’t invent the gazette.