ThyBlackMan.com) Every year on the 26
th of January, Australians come together to celebrate Australia day. It’s usually a time filled with fun, laughter, family gatherings, and a whole lot of barbecuing. The reason for the festivities is to celebrate the anniversary of the arrival of the first British fleet at Port Jackson, New South Wales.
On 26 January 1788, the British Governor, Arthur Phillip, planted the Great British flag at the Port Jackson to indicate British jurisdiction over Australia. Even though this has become a day of celebration there are many misconceptions and debates about it. Some, especially aboriginal citizens, even refer to it as a day of invasion whilst past names were Foundation Day and Anniversary Day. Luckily, in 1946, all Australians came to agreement that the anniversary would be called Australia Day – and so it has stayed that way ever since.
1. You should know that. The First Fleet didn t actually arrive on the 26 January
The First Fleet, the group of ships which left England to create a penal colony abroad, actually arrived in Botany Bay somewhere between the 18th and 20th of January 1788.
Source: GIPHY
After landing, settlers wanted to relocate in the hope of finding a more suitable area to construct their colony. They travelled to Sydney Cove on 25 January and the next morning, on the 26th, Sir Arthur Phillip and a small entourage of marines and officers claimed the land in the name of King George III.
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All 11 ships arrived within two days of each other.
There was hardly any loss of life.
The 16,000 mile (25,750km) voyage, made at the speed of a man walking, eventually settled in what Captain Arthur Phillip called Sydney Cove, very close to what is now Circular Quay.
So ended one of the great nautical achievements of the modern world.
Detractors
So many books have been written about the First Fleet, its arrival at Sydney Cove and what followed in the next few years, it’s difficult to discern between fact and fiction.
Charles Wilson, in
Australia: The Creation of a Nation, rails against the ‘inefficiency, carelessness and idleness of the masters and servants of the ministries which all had a finger in the pie called the First Fleet.’
Usually, participants soak in the 360-degree spectacle of Sydney without challenge to a westernised perspective of this land and harbour. For this inaugural Burrawa climb, however, we learn legendary stories as we walk atop the steel span of the bridge, which some 250,000 Australians walked across more than 20 years ago in a march for reconciliation.
All dressed in jumpsuits and harnesses, our guides teach us “putawá”, which according to the slim diaries kept by the first fleet engineer and astronomer Lieutenant William Dawes in 1790-91 means “to warm ones [sic] hand by the fire & then to squeeze gently the fingers of another person”.
With public spending on an unprecedented scale and previously unimaginable restrictions on our daily lives, 2020 hasn t been a great year for small government conservatives . But with pandemic pragmatism tempering the instinct for lower spending and greater freedom, there s now scope to focus on the other main element in the conservative creed: namely love of country and appreciation of our history. And there s more need for that too, as the Australia that emerges from the pandemic will not only have more debt and bigger government. As things stand, it s likely to be less self-confident about what holds us together as a nation.