About Us

Originally Melbourne Foundation Day, the events to commemorate August 30 have been given a new look and renamed Melbourne Day.

Melbourne Day Committee was formed in 1992 as a not-for-profit organisation after businessman Hedley Elliott sought help from former Premier Sir Rupert Hamer to establish the facts of Melbourne’s founding and get Victorian history taught in schools.

Sir Rupert was appointed inaugural chairman of the committee, which acknowledges not John Batman nor John Fawkner as the city’s founders but those who arrived on the Enterprize and built a settlement from which Melbourne has grown.

The committee’s aims are to:

1. Create and promote public awareness of 30 August 1835 as Melbourne's foundation day, and to celebrate the anniversaries thereof.
2. Organise appropriate events to commemorate the founding of Melbourne.
3. Foster and promote greater historical knowledge and awareness of Melbourne's development.
4. Educate and encourage Melburnians to greater recognition of their heritage.