WO'N - here's your answer...
"Australia Day (26 January) commemorates the arrival of Captain Arthur Phillip and the First Fleet at Port Jackson, later renamed Sydney Cove, on 26th January,1788 after leaving England on 13th May 1787. On the day of his arrival, Captain Arthur Phillip proclaimed the area to be a British possesion, naming it New South Wales. This landing started the first permanent European settlement in Australia. The fleet consisted of two warships, the Sirius and the Supply, and nine merchantment. There are said to have been 564 male and 192 female convicts, 450 crew with civil and military personnel appointed to official duties,28 wives and 30 children, of whom 15 belonged to the convicts.
Australia Day is a holiday throughout Australia. Traditionally the celebrations include flag-raising and commemorative events, a 21 gun salute, regattas and parades. More recently the event has been marked by naturalization and citizenship ceremonies and the presentation of Australia Day Citizen and Young Citizen Awards. There are also concerts, theatrical productions, fireworks and a variety of other events including a carnival in Canberra."
Captain James Cook "discovered" and mapped the east coast of Australia in 1770 in the bark "Endeavour".
Growing up on the east coast in a strongly British dominated system this was about the depth of it - "the Brits did it all, the Brits are good", colonial sort of stuff. No mention of the Portuguese (and probably the Dutch) who knew the place was here well over a hundred years before Cook but chose to do nothing with their knowledge.
I used quotes on discovered because it also is a Colonial thing. The aboriginal people had been here for 60,000 years and weren't lost at all. Matter of fact, I think they did a damn fine job keeping this place to themselves for all that time. Sharing it with Europeans only stuffed things up for them.
stales
