January 26th is an absolutely wonderful day to be in Australia. Chooksie's uber-cool friend Andrew Jones invited me to a house party hosted by his brothers. I arrived around 10 am and we just barely beat the rush. Then in typical Aussie form, the house and yard began to fill itself quite quickly. Wave after wave of friendly lovely people introduced themselves to me, initially believing me to be a yank. To quell these rumours, I created a name-tag which stated that I was "Mica from Canada." Funny enough, I gained the name "Canadia" as the day grew longer. Not sure why.
The hospitality of Australians was once again on full display. Truly special stuff. It was also the perfect day weather wise. The sun was golden, spirits were high, and punch bowls were always full. I feel really lucky, that at each of these gatherings I seem to meet people one at a time. In Australia, there is such an emphasis on being outdoors, and in general, on conversation. Only on a few occasions did full fledged dance parties burst out (when they did they rocked), but I was extremely satisfied getting to know everyone. Also, Australia has an incredible tradition that really adds to the excitement of the day...
A national radio station known as the Triple J (kind of like the Peak 100.5 in Vancouver) has the world's largest countdown on Aussie Day. Essentially millions of people vote, and they play the most popular songs on the radio live, from 100-1. Seems simple enough, however it really is a focal aspect of the day. Whatever party you find yourself in, its going to be blasting somewhere. I cannot think of an equivalent in Canada.
The company during the day was outstanding; whether it was Isabelle with the Polaroid, Lloyd and Frances with the Rainbow Fish, GIFE, Myles and Gen with the tennis connection, Katie with the work connection, Beyonce live and in the Flesh.... (I could go on and on)
It was lovely meeting everyone. Australians make it very easy to feel welcome.
I have been reading a book of Australian history. I states that January 26, 1788 was the day that Governor Phillip landed in Botany Bay (now Sydney) About 1400 people in 11 ships were in this fleet. This included 784 convicts. When the 13 America colonies had successfully separated there convict colonies in Maryland and Virginia were no longer available to Britain. By the time that Phillip left 4 years later the colony had grown to about 4000.
ReplyDeleteAt the time of first contact the estimate of Aborigines in Australia was between 300,000 to 1 million and this author settles on the figure of 500,000 as a reasonable number. There were 250 languages many with several languages.
A question is whether Australia was settled or invaded. A question that can also be asked of Canada.
I intended to connect the reference. The reason that convicts were sent to Australia from Britain was because convicts could no longer be sent to the convict colonies in Maryland and Virginia.
ReplyDeleteThe voyage of these 11 ships was 14,000 miles. Never in the prior history of the world had so many people travelled so far together.
It's been 8 days with no entry. Your entries are missed.
ReplyDelete