Next Australia Day

A meeting of Aborigines at the Australian Hall in Sydney in 1938 issued a proclamation that on 'the 150th Anniversary of the Whiteman's seizure of our country' passed unanimously a resolution protesting at the whiteman's mistreatment of Aborigines since 1788 and appealing for new laws ensuring equality for Aborigines within the Australian community’
Peter Garrett gave his 2009 Sorry Day speech (May 26) standing in First Fleet Park. He said that Sorry Day still exists because the first Australians are coming last and it’s time that changed.
Today, many indigenous Australians claim Australia Day is “Invasion Day”
To make Australia day more inclusive, some more substantial tribute to the Aborigines that were here to see the arrival of the first Fleet at Sydney Cove is needed, something more than a separate day to be sorry for injustices.
Perhaps this First Fleet park could serve better as a tribute to Australia Day for all, by being renamed Reconciliation Park.

First Fleet Park

At least you can see some of the modern Australia Day celebrations on Sydney Harbour, from First Fleet Park.
All the city council tells us about this park is that “It’s a stone’s throw from the Harbour”.
The park is nestled between the Museum of Contemporary Art, and the overhead railway station at Circular Quay.
The only apparent link between the park and Australia Day is a little brass plate up in George street, attached to a sandstone wall.

First Fleet memorials in the city

Across the road from the first fleet flag pole in Jessie Street Gardens, is the First Fleet memorial. ( This is Loftus street, remember, not Jessie Street. Jessie Street was a noted feminist in Sydney)
The memorial is called The Bonds of Friendship, by sculptor John Robinson consisting of two interlocking rings and is located in the northern section of the park. It is meant to reflect the original landing place of the First Fleet and was a gift from the City’s sister city of Portsmouth, England.

The Sirius Anchor

A cannon and anchor taken from the First Fleet flagship, HMS Sirius, were placed nearby, in Macquarie Place park. Macquarie Place Park is on the corner of little known Macquarie Place, and Bridge street. It should not be confused with Macquarie Street, home of the NSW Parliament.
The Sirius, named after the brightest star in the sky, was registered as a 'sixth rate' vessel.

Claiming Australia

A part of the legal process for claiming a new colony in 1788 was to plant the flag. That moment would seem to be a reasonable important event in Australian history.
It took me a year to find out where the arrival of the first fleet was solemnised, by Captain Arthur Phillip raising the Union Jack.
I asked the City Council, I asked at the library, I asked at the Sydney Museum. I rang the Australia Day committee. They didn’t know. I eventually found the answer in a book about Sydney by Ruth Park.
The exact location where the first flag in Australia was saluted, on January 26th, is in Loftus street just alongside the City Library in Customs House at Circular Quay.
You can sit in the Paragon hotel across the road, and with a fine rum, ponder what the sailors and soldiers and convicts of the first fleet thought of this little ceremony. The first official Australia day
A replica of that Union Jack hangs limply on a tall flag pole surrounded by official inscriptions, wanting a breeze on most days.
Passers-by can barely see the flagpole. It is surrounded by a fleet of modern buses, waiting for their timetables to send them on journeys around Sydney.
I asked a dozen bus drivers what they knew of the flag. Most of them, parking here for ten years or more in their bus driving careers, did not know there was a flag pole there, let alone why it was there.

Camp Cove 1788

Now, just inside the entrance to Sydney Harbour at South Head, at the headland to the west of Camp Cove in Sydney, is a small neglected memorial stone, with tributes to the short stay of the First Fleet while they looked for a site to establish a new nation, or at least a site for a penal colony.

Leaving no hint of their arrival in Kurnell Australia in 1788, the First Fleet had weighed anchors and followed the coastal cliffs to Sydney Cove, then turned in through the heads. The officers of the First Fleet seems to have looked at Manly, and moved on immediately.

Property next to Watson’s Bay looked like better real estate for a new world, than Brighton. They set up camp here on 21 January, 1788. But they were determined to find even better land and water for their colony, so a few people rowed down the harbour till they discovered Circular Quay.

When I found this memorial at Camp Cove a few years ago, it was covered with cobwebs on Australia day. This year the cobwebs had been blown away, and it was in reasonable condition. But still lonely looking, and its importance apparently forgotten by people celebrating Australia Day.

Botany Bay

When the First Fleet arrived in Australia they had followed a map left to them by Captain Cook. So they steered for Botany Bay, wisely by-passing Tasmania and Victoria.

The first vessel of the fleet arrived there on 18 February, 1788. There is no tribute, no marker, no memorial spot at Kurnell to suggest that the First Fleet might also have visited the landing spot where Cook’s crew came to shore. There’s plenty of historical acknowledgement to Cook's visit, but nothing about the First Fleet at Kurnell.

Instead the monument to the first white immigrants is way over on the shallow side of the bay, in the suburb of Brighton. I can’t imagine them even considering pitching tents there.

Kurnell is a poor place to want to build a new country, but Brighton is worse. But that’s where the grand monument to the arrival of the First Fleet sits on the shore.

What the Captains of the First Fleet vessels might have found at Brighton probably looked bad for chances of success in their new world mission. But further around in Botany Bay, there’s water deep enough for ships, where Sydney’s industrial harbour now operates.

Perhaps they thought the French were already there, and didn’t chance further exploration in Botany Bay. The French certainly arrived in Botany Bay a few days later, hard on the heels of the British First Fleet . Hence we have the suburb of La Perouse on Botany Bay to remind us of their early presence in 1788.

The monument to the First Fleet, at Brighton today, is peeling and torn, a good meeting place but no one sitting around the model ship on the day I visited could tell me why it was there.

Neglected parts of Australia Day

One of the good parts of living in Australia is the larrikin response to political officialdom and business control of holidays.
So it’s laid back fun to enjoy barbeques and mateships that thrive on Australia Day. It’s exciting to go to some of the suburban ceremonies, when new Australians get their certificates of citizenship, and swear allegiance to the Royal family of Australia
Australia Day is meant to celebrate the formation of a nation, based on the arrival of the First Fleet, in 1788.

The First Fleet of 11 ships led by HMS Sirius, left Portsmouth in 1787 with more than 1480 men, women and children onboard.
Those Brits landed in Sydney Cove in 1788 and started to rearrange the place. They brought a ready made population of their unwanted convicts and felons.
Just a few decades ago some bright government clerk thought that this event would be a good focus point to celebrate as our national day.
Some indigenous people still feel a bit resentful about British colonisation of Australia in 1788. Some of the rest of us think it’s a bit peculiar to still be carrying the British Union Jack on our national flag, so long after we left home, breaking away from the Mother Land.
Over the years a number of memorials and monuments to the achievements of the first fleet have been established around Sydney harbour.
These monuments now seem to be ignored and forgotten on Australia Day

Year of the extinct tiger

This February will see the start of the Year of the Tiger, in the Chinese calendar.
There are two extraordinary animals in that calendar.
One animal, the dragon, is already extinct and considered to be a myth. The other animal, the tiger, is nearly extinct, and is rapidly entering halls of mythology.
The world’s tiger population is at its lowest level ever, with possibly as few as 3,200 remaining in the wild.
It is estimated that one Bengal tiger dies every day. Just over a century ago there were more than 40,000 alive in India - now there are just 1,800.
Three subspecies of tigers –　 the Bali, Caspian, and Javan tiger – have become extinct in the past century. And a fourth may be on its way... many scientists believe the South China tiger is "functionally extinct".
Ironically, in the Year of the Tiger, the World Wide Fund Nature (WWF) has launched a last-ditch attempt aimed at saving the species. There is a desperate plan to release zoo tigers back into the wild
A plan has been adopted to help the South China tiger, A team is rearing zoo-bred tigers in South Africa and hope to release them in China.
The fewer tigers there are, the more financial there is to kill the rare commodity
At current availability, a tiger carcass can fetch up to $50,000, skins can reach up to $20,000, while a kilogram of the creature's bones can sell for about $6,000. And a tiger penis, for use in so-called virility pills, is priced at $28,000 for 100g.
Other people make a profit from tigers in other ways. In the interest of the tigers, here’s a few links to tiger related interests around Sydney, with a hope that you might see how relevant tiger mythology has already become to our culture.

• Balmain Tigers football club


• Tiger airways


• Tiger beer


• Winnie the pooh


• West Tigers


• Richmond


• Tasmanian tiger


• Tiger Moth


• Paper Tiger


• Tiger shark


• Tiger eyes


• All things tiger

Of course, no review of Tiger lore is complete without reference to one of the most famous poems refering to Tigers:
Tiger tiger burning bright William Blake