Australia Day

On Wednesday I had the day off from work in honour of Australia Day.  While none of my Australian colleagues could tell me what the significance of Australia Day is, apart from beer and barbies, I learned from Wikipedia that it’s the official national day of Australia.  The date, January 26^th, celebrates the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove in 1788 and the subsequent proclamation of British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of Australia.  The First Fleet refers to the 11 ships that departed from Great Britain in 1787 to establish the first European colony in Australia; approximately 52% of the passengers were convicts.

There is some controversy around the celebration of Australia Day on January 26^th.  Some people, particularly Indigenous Australians, refer to Australia Day as Invasion Day or Survival Day, and stage protests at annual Australia Day celebrations.  Others view the date as strengthening the connection with Australia’s convict past, commemorating, “Britain's driving ashore of Australia's first white citizens in chains.”  Due to these reasons as well as a myriad of other arguments, including the fact that January 26^th falls during school holidays, proposals have been made to change the date that Australia Day is celebrated.  To date this has been unsuccessful, so on Wednesday I was able to partake in my very first Australia Day, full of barbies, flags, beach trips, beer and fireworks.

In order to cut down on antisocial behaviour, alcohol could only be consumed within designated zones during the Perth Australia Day fireworks extravaganza.  Additionally, alcohol consumption within these zones was restricted to a two hour period between 6:30 – 8:30 PM.  Adults over the age of 18 were permitted one bottle of wine, one six pack of beer, or one six pack of premixed drinks (per person).  Yes, you did read that correctly.  It was considered perfectly legal to consume one beer every twenty minutes for two hours, in a public, outdoor space.  And please don’t forget that the first barbie I spotted was at 7:00 AM so some people had been drinking for many hours before 6:30 PM rolled around.  Maybe H and I are getting old, but while we could see how one can easily drink three beers in an hour, maintaining that pace to consume an additional three beers within the next hour seemed a bit extreme to us.  We haven’t yet taken to heart the Aussie mantra I learned from a very drunk middle aged man during a free (and copious) tasting of very nice wine at a boutique vineyard in the Margaret River: “Work is for work and alcohol is to get pissed.”