26th January – Australia Day

Uluru (Ayers Rock)

Just like you in the U.S. have your National day, Independence Day on the 4th July, Australia also has a National Day.

The day we celebrate the birth of our Nation we call ‘Australia Day’, and it is celebrated each year on the 26th January, today.

This day was deliberately chosen, because it was on that day in 1788 that Captain Arthur Phillip landed at Sydney Cove with the First Fleet, this the start of white settlement in Australia.

Last year I was asked to construct a short series of posts detailing how Australia came to be, and I constructed five posts for that series in May of last year. During those posts I detailed the early history of Australia from the point of that first landing. On board those 11 ships that took 8 months to arrive were 443 people made up of the ship’s crews Officers, Officials, Guards, some wives and children, along with 778 convicts, 192 of whom were women.

Today we celebrate that first arrival as Australia Day.

This video posted to YouTube by mrtibbs6912

I have chosen to include this song with the post. It was co written by Bruce Woodley who was one of the members of the band The Seekers, famous in Australia, Europe and with some following in the U.S. Bruce wrote this song in 1987, and this version is sung by the Seekers themselves. It has been recorded by numerous artists and has been used in many advertising campaigns, most notably the Australian national airline QANTAS. I chose this version because the original artists do this song the best, and this video includes numerous images of Australia.

The day is a National public holiday, and there are numerous functions held all across the Country. The Australian national pastime, the barbecue is one of the big things that will be happening today.

It is also a day when new citizens take the oath and become Australians. Australian Honours are also awarded on this day, and there is usually a list of 200 or so of them, mostly awards for service to the community in many aspects.

Each year one special Australian is named as Australian of the year. Each State nominates one person, and then the Australian of the year is selected from that short list. This year, the Australian of the year is Professor Mick Dodson, an indigenous Australian, honoured for his many years of work as a campaigner for indigenous rights.

The indigenous Australians would like the date of the celebration of Australia Day changed, because some of them look upon it as Invasion Day, as they have been here for 40,000 years and more, and they look upon this white settlement on that day as an invasion, as peaceful as it seemingly was.

Still, the general consensus of opinion is that it is a day we should all celebrate, because most Australians can trace their ancestry back to anywhere but Australia.

This is a wonderful day for all us, because we are all Australians.

Links to The Australia Series.

Part 1. Australia (Part One) The Genesis

Part 2. Australia (Part Two) Germ Of An Idea

Part 3. Australia (Part Three) Arrival

Part 4. Australia (Part 4) The Early Years

Part5. Australia (Part 5) Young Men In Boats

Sunday Music

Tagged: Australia Day, First Settlement, National Patriotism

Posted in: Australia, Videos