Thursday was Australia Day, and we celebrated in true Aussie fashion with a lamb and wine on the beach with friends from Melbourne.
Most Aussies seem to view the day as just a good excuse to have a day off work to go to the beach, have a picnic, drink some beer and wine and maybe watch a few fireworks. Australia Day is also the day when a lot of new immigrants become citizens of Australia, and the Australian Government hands out honours and names the Australians of the Year awards etc. The date though - January 26th - has become controversial since it celebrates the actual day the first European settlers (Captain Arthur Phillips and his First Fleet ) arrived on the shores in 1788. Many now want Australia Day detached from the date since it celebrates the start of colonisation that had such a terrible impact on the indigenous people of Australia. There were quite a few protests in the big cities on the day.
Still, without wading too much into the local political scene, we enjoyed celebrating Australia on Australia Day (and there's a lot to celebrate!) We focused on the positives. Toby made a short film about it too - you can see it here
 |
| Anna and Toby get into the spirit of things |
 |
| Beach gathering |
 |
| Rock pools |
 |
| A lot of beach cricket is played here |
 |
| Spot Zoe |
 |
| A sand kangaroo seemed most appropriate for the day |
 |
| The kangaroo also got into the spirit of the day |
No comments:
Post a Comment