Australia Day - January 26

Australian's love a reason for a big party and Australia Day is dedicated to just that.

It's not all party-fun though. January 26th started being celebrated as Australia Day in 1935. The party theme didn't really kick in until 1994. We may be slow but we sure know how to have a good time.

The history of this date is quite important in Australia being the day, in 1788, that Captain Arthur Phillip dropped off the first load of convicts and free settlers at Sydney Cove. That auspicious fleet of ships and cargo is known as the First Fleet and much of modern-Australia culture [or the underbelly of it] stems from those days. Captain Phillip went on to become the first Governor of New South Wales [we became "Australia" under the governorship of Lachlan Macquarie in 1826 though the name had been around since Matthew Flinders coined it way back in 1814].

Matthew Flinders, by the way, was quite the adventurer. He along with his buddy,George Bass,and crewman, William Martin, explored, named and mapped most of the Australian east coast, and a fair bit of the south coast, including Van Dieman's Land [Tasmania]. He later survived shipwreck on the Barrier Reef, a six year imprisonment in France and published the influential book, "A Voyage to Terra Australis".

But I digress. Having been celebrated as Foundation Day by the First Fleet settlers and later as Anniversary Day, in 1936 a Celebrations Council was set up in order to have a really good time for the 150th anniversary in 1938. The parties continued on, each year being bigger and better until 1988 and the 200th anniversary of European settlement in Australia.

1988 was a year full of controversy and the biggest party ever! Indigenous Australians made a concerted push for reconcilliation and land rights that is still being felt today. A Tent Embassy was set up outside the Sydney Royal Botanical Gardens with the aim of creating awareness of indigenous people and issues. Among the indigenous, Australia Day is known as Invasion Day. Recognition of their presence prior to European settlement and rights as prior occupants of the land has resulted in an improved standing, access to resources, official "Sorries", and a constant remnder and awareness that Europeans live on Aboriginal land.

Celebrations that year included a parade of sail from Hobart to Sydney. This event replaced the annual Sydney to Hobart race [Boxing Day 1987] and became an invitational to yachts and tall ships worldwide to participate. On Australia Day itself, the Tall Ships, historic steam ships and thousands of smaller craft paraded the Sydney Harbour. It was a magnificent day!

Since then, Australia Day has grown from a single day celebration to a party lasting several and including at least one weekend. The Big Day Out is a "touring" day-long rock concert featuring local and international performers, and attracting massive crowds. The concert series actually starts in New Zealand then spends a day each in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

Every major city holds its own party usually involving music, family events, festivals and eventually, fireworks. Regional areas aren't to be left out either having as much fun with only slightly less the glamour.

Outside of the party theme of the day, civic ceremonies concerning gaining citizenship and naming of Australians of the Year are held around the country. Many events are also dedicated to a charity and major funds are raised through merchandise sales and donation collectors on the day.

Australian's know how to party all right and we pack as much into an event as we can.

Christmas at the Zoo!

For Christmas 2007, a bunch of family members decided that getting together on Christmas Day was not going to be doable without truck loads of stress, so we’d hang out after Christmas. And, instead of doing the usual showing up at someone’s place with some food and an esky full of cold drinks [alcoholic or otherwise], we’d congregate somewhere public where cleaning up meant dumping all empties into the closest garbage bin. It started off as a combined Christmas present for my sister and her family, and my family. A day at the Zoo! I mentioned it to a cousin, she mentioned it to someone else and the next thing we knew, we’d set a date for five related but different families to “de-chill” after the Christmas rush.

We brought our own supplies. We paid our own way. We showed up in our own good time.

And we had a lovely day.

One of Sydney’s main tourist attractions is the Taronga Zoo, but it’s not the only zoo in town. Aside from the new establishment at Darling Harbour, which I’ve yet to visit, and the great aquariums [one at Darling Harbour and one at Manly], there is also Symbio Zoo at Helensburg.
Approximately an hour’s drive south of the city [and half that from where I live], Symbio’s really is a wonderful place to spend the day. If you want somewhere to take the whole family, see some animals, have fun and not break the already exhausted budget, Symbio Zoo is the place to go. Smaller than Taronga Zoo, yes. Fewer exotic animals? Also a yes. A good range of Australian animals? A big yes! And easy to view with areas that allow visual access and almost touching access [if you really want to be stupid]. Plus they have shows and feeding sessions throughout the day - all similar to Taronga, just on a smaller scale.

But the animals here aren’t the only attraction. Symbio also has spacious and shady picnic areas dotted around the landscape. You can set up under a tree next to the dingo enclosure, close to the wandering wild birds in the wetland area or by the pool.

The zoo opens at 9.30am, so my bit of the family arrived at 9.35 in order to claim some good space. I opted for the dingoes. They were yawning, well-fed puppies and there was a big fence between them and my preferred picnic table. The rest of our growing group opted for the pool. Seeing the practicality of that option [kids + hot day = need to get wet], I acquiesced. We claimed two tables by the pool under a massive shade tree and then trotted off to mingle with the animals.

The stand-out part of the whole day as far as I was concerned was being able to pat the dingo pups who were taken for a walk by their minder to visit with the visitors and watching another minder head off to the covered amphitheatre, koala on hip, for the cuddly koala show.
The kids loved the free-range kangaroo enclosure where everybody gets to walk around the cage and hand-feed the little beasties. There were joeys in and out of their mothers’ pouches. Grey roos, red roos and possibly a few wallabies [Really, apart from size, they all look the same to me. Reds are big. Greys are middlin’ and wallabies are usually smallish].

The lone camel was amusing as it alternately pooped, ate its poop and then started again. As was the lost joey taking a rest on the shady side of the Bald Eagle cage that ignored everybody except those offering tidbits of the zoo’s kangaroo feed mix. It looked like a bag of dried grass to me, but obviously there was something special about the mix as all the kangaroos loved it. The lyrebird is an interesting, if rather camera-shy character. It displayed its magnificent tail non-stop and as soon as anyone came near with a camera, turned around to display its back end as well. I, naturally, took a snap of that and was granted a few seconds to get a shot of the prettier side too. There’s a bird who knows how to manipulate the paparazzi!

I got some great pics with lots of close ups. The cassowary shown is one of my favourites. These birds are dangerous, but when my daughter told this one to be still so I could get a photo it froze as if in shock at being ordered around. As soon as I get around to it, I’ll upload them to my Flickr account. I’m pretty sure I opened up an account a few months ago...

In the meantime, check out the zoo’s website and plan a visit soon. Go early. It did get crowded. And if it’s a hot day, grab those tables by the pool – perfect spot to eat, drink, watch the kids swimming and share Christmas horror stories!