Today is Australia Day! The day that we officially celebrate the founding of Australia, or as it’s referred to in the record industry, "The Landmass Previously Known as New Holland".
Today Australians commemorate the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove in 1788, the hoisting of the British flag there, the proclamation of British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of New Holland and probably the shooting of some Aborigines.
Eighteen years after Captain Cook told everyone he was the first person to find this new country, the British parliament decided that being the other side of the earth, Australia would be a good place to dump convicts as it was deemed far enough out of sight from the upper classes. So off they all went, down under.
Fills a person with pride!
ReplyDeleteThey only dumped the "convicts" (i doubt most of them really deserved it) here because Antarctica hadn't yet been discovered!
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