Thread: Australia Day

Here's why we have Australia Day on January 26 every year:
1. The English, determined to get rid of convicts from rotting hulks on the Thames, shipped them out to Sydney Cove, and landed at Sydney Cove on this date in 1788
2. From 1808 onward, emancipated convicts and a few drunken sods in the New South Wales colony used Jan 25-26 as an excuse for a boozy celebration of the new land
3. In 1818, the Governor of New South Wales - Lachlan Macquarie - declared Jan 26 a public holiday for all workers to celebrate the landing in 1788: it was called Foundation Day
4. Over time, and by 1935, the celebration of Foundation Day was accepted in the other states and territories, although New South Wales was still calling it Anniversary Day at that stage.
5. Traditionalists argue 'we've always celebrated on Jan 26, so why change it?'
6. Let's face it, we all love a holiday break early in the new working year and a lamb bbq is pretty good for most of us (sorry vegans and animals rights people and non lamb eaters in general)
7. Anglophiles who struggle with letting go of Mummy's apron strings need to reassert their English heritage every year - at least those who are descendants of, or can relate to, the rich and privileged 'free British citizens' who arrived back in 1788 and shortly after
8. Did I mention we all love a public holiday, whatever the reason?


And here's why we shouldn't celebrate 'Australia Day' on January 26:
1. The English didn't declare anything official about the new land - the Colony of New South Wales - until February 7, 1788, so Jan 26 is technically inaccurate and we should be celebrating 'Settlement of The Colony of New South Wales Day' on Feb 7 instead
2.The name for the land (not the nation, please note) - Australia - had been bandied about on various charts and maps in a variety of derivations by different nationalities from as early as the C16th, but it was only officially adopted by the British Admiralty in 1824. The English settlers didn't land in Australia, they landed in New South Wales on Terra Australis Incognito, so we should be celebrating 'English arrival at Sydney Cove Day' or 'TAI Day' if we persist with Jan 26
3. The English weren't settling an uninhabited land. We all know the alternate facts of English patronage. That's why it probably should be called 'English Invasion Day', as some suggest or ‘The Day of Racist Ignorance’. However you try to look at it, keeping Jan 26 simply continues to rub racist crap in our faces
4. While we know other European nations also landed on parts of the continent before the English, the annexation of the continent should be celebrated as 'We, the English, Beat the Other Bastards Day'
5. As a nation, Australia didn't exist until January 1, 1901. Prior to 1901, we were a disparate, rag-tag, jealous group of states and territories that - oh, wait, we still are in many ways...Anyway, the point being that Australia Day should be celebrated annually on January 1st. Otherwise, we really should be celebrating 'Colony Sibling Rivalry (and let's ignore the territories) Day'
6. There was no such animal as an Australian citizen until 1949, when British subjects living in Australia (that's mainly white people in Australia at the time - indigenous people weren't people until the 1967 referendum) were recognised as Australian British subjects. In 1973, legally we started talking about an Australian Citizenship Act, in 1984-7 amendments ratified that Act, but it wasn't until 2007 - yes, 2007! - that we really could say that Australian citizens were actually Australian citizens in the true sense of any national citizenship. So, perhaps it would be more fitting to celebrate Australia Day on July 1, after the 2007 Citizenship Act really identified an independent and free nation of Australians, regardless of origin, class, colour, arrival etc.


Later, this year, on July 1st, I'm taking a day to celebrate Australian nationhood, as an Australian free of the shackles of historical prejudice, snobbery, alternate facts, privileges - to celebrate Australia Day when colour, origin and countless details no longer validate my place in my nation.


MAKE JULY 1 AUSTRALIA DAY!

penned my a friend of mine

Originally Posted by DrWilly

5. Traditionalists argue 'we've always celebrated on Jan 26, so why change it?'

Reckon there might be a few who think like that.

Can us non Aussies get some formatting.

I celebrated the auspicious day by going to my local Indian, at least I knew he'd be open. The Punjabi owner wished me happy Australia day, so I wished him happy Australia day too. Guess we're both invaders.

Originally Posted by sabang

I celebrated the auspicious day by going to my local Indian, at least I knew he'd be open. The Punjabi owner wished me happy Australia day, so I wished him happy Australia day too. Guess we're both invaders.

You should have also wished him Happy Republic Day

I must admit I was rusted on to the 26th jan but it wont matter what day is chosen there will be the protests of the butthurt. But if January 1st soothes the feelings of some of our urban indigenous activists That is fine by me. Federation day is probably more significent for the majority of Australians.

Originally Posted by sabang

Guess we're both invaders.

Ummm . . . no. Indians didn't attempt to commit genocide in Australia. Brits did.

You don’t have to ‘attempt to commit genocide’ to be an invader.

Another non sequitur.

You've never tried Daleep's vindaloo.

Originally Posted by cyrille

You don’t have to ‘attempt to commit genocide’ to be an invader.

Another non sequitur.

I never said you did . . . in this case (as stated), however, it was a fact. Invaded. Tried. Failed. Sequitur.

Originally Posted by sabang

You've never tried Daleep's vindaloo.

If you're talking about Daleep's in Woolloomoolloo . . . then yes, I have.