Australia Day

Here's the history lesson:

Yesterday was Australia Day a national holiday held every January 26th to remember the origins of Australia and celebrate its achievements.

It marks the arrival of the first fleet in Sydney on January 26, 1788. The ships under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip had brought a load of prisoners from England. The prisoners on the ships were not all criminals as we would think of them today. Many of them were people who had been arrested because the government didn't like what they had to say, also some were poor people who had been jailed because they owed money.

These prisoners were the first Europeans to settle in Australia, before 1783 many of Britain's unwanted criminals had been sent to the United States.

Today Australia is the only day that you can officially become an Australia citizen, you need to wait two years so we'll be taking up dual nationality on 26th January 2009... of course the baby with have Australian nationality before its parents!!

On this Australia day we went into Newcastle's Foreshore and checked out the community events taking place. There had been a lot of hoo haa about the waving of flags etc and the offence that it can cause to other ethnic groups (Australia not so different from England after all then!) but most people seemed to be carrying one wearing one. We also enjoyed the Fun Fair, Horse Rides and jumping of the sea wall (well the kids did anyway!)

In the evening there were free fireworks and a concert with a wide variety of bands. One of the strangest sights was the Pre-Schoolers and Punks mosh pit!