Advertisement
Published: February 1st 2007
Edit Blog Post
Patriotic
Patriotic footwear - perfect for the beach on Australia Day A BBQ at the beach on
Australia Day.... well it doesn't get much more Australian than that does it?
Australia Day is Australia's official national day, on the 26th January. It commemorates the landing of the First Fleet in Sydney Cove on that day in 1788.
By 1808, the day was being celebrated as 'First Landing' or 'Foundation Day'. In 1818 (the 30th anniversary) Governor Macquarie had a 30-gun salute at Dawes Point and gave government workers a holiday.
In 1938 the 150th anniversary of British settlement in New South Wales was widely celebrated. In that year, NSW was the only state to abandon the traditional long weekend and the annual Anniversary Day public holiday was held on the actual anniversary day - Wednesday 26 January.
Since 1994 all states and territories have taken the Australia Day public holiday on the 26th of January. Australia Day is marked by civic celebrations around the country, including the Order of Australia and Australian of the Year awards for outstanding achievement. Citizenship ceremonies are also held on Australia Day. Customarily, the Prime Minister will make an address to the nation.
Australia Day's importance as a national event is somewhat downplayed by some Australians. Some regard the day as a convenient end-of-summer holiday, but not of any great emotive significance. Public participation in ceremonies, other than sports events, is infrequent, although not generally any less frequented by the public compared to other civic occasions.
In recent years, Australia Day has been celebrated more intensely by all. Barbecues and pool parties are the norm............
www.wikipedia.com
so what did our family do for Australia Day? We jumped in the car (well, if only it happened like that - when you have 3 children and one of them a 6 month old baby- more like mum spent 2 hours cleaning and about 1 hour packing)
Then we headed down the highway towards the Gold Coast. With a stop for ice and cups we got there in about an hour. It was cloudy in Brisbane and I was worried about a Summer storm possibly ruining the day, but by the time we got to the Coast beautiful blue skies awaited. It was the perfect day. Obviously half of Queensland thought the same thing as there were many people set up to spend the whole day down at the beach - BBQ's, stereo systems, marquees etc.
As we were expecting a group of about 50 people we set up some tables under a tree and Anthony started on the BBQ straight away. mmmmmmm...... Sausages in bread with onion and tomato
Sneek Peek
The beach from the picnic area sauce..... the perfect Australia Day food and watermelon for dessert. Barely managed to get the children to eat something as the were desperate to get to the beach which was about 200 m away.
Since it was lunch time and the middle of the day is too hot to swim as they have very fair skin and would burn in 10 mins. Got them distracted with waiting for a big ball to blown up (took a lot of puffing to get the two balls filled). The balls were subsequently used for a volleyball game and entertained the kids for a good while.
Now my photos just don't do the day justice. The water was a blue green colour into dark blue with the sky light blue, it was so beautiful. The water was also crystal clear. I went in until about a metre and half deep and could see right through. The visiblity was great. I am not the best beach person - always worried what is underneath me - and scared of seaweed tickling me - so today was perfect as I could see everything and there was nothing in the water, no seaweed -
Patriotic 2
Superman? Australiaman? nothing. So even I went in about 3 times and totally enjoyed myself. The children definately enjoyed themselves. I couldn't get them to leave. I tried to get them back to our group on the grass and reapply suncream, but my plan didn't work. So they all have a bit of sunburn on their cheeks and under their eyes, but it isn't too bad.
We also lost a football into a tall fir tree and after throwing everything possible at it to make it fall, we finally had to send one of the guys up to fetch it down for us. It was very high up too. Lucky someone has the skills to climb tall trees and enough bravery. We also played a very cool game which I enjoyed so much I forgot to get photos of it. So you will have to make do with the description. We used the volleyball net with a team on each side. Each team divided into 4 pairs. Each pair was given a tea towel. We then proceeded to use the tea towels to throw water bombs one at a time over the net. The other team then had to "catch"
mmmm sausages
lunch - sausages, bread, onion, tomato sauce the water bomb in one of their tea towels. The game rotated just like volleyball, with the pair at the back "serving" the waterbomb over the net. It was so much fun and the water bombs were constantly busting and getting everyone wet. I totally recommend this game next time anyone has a volleyball net out!!!
There were many people sporting the Australian flag today, which makes it fun. Flags flying from hotel rooms, worn like capes around people's necks, non-permanent tatoo's on arms and faces, towels and even a few swimming costumes with the flag colours. Great to see everyone getting into the fun of Australia day.
Happy Australia Day
But unfortunately we all know what it means... back at school and back to work... Summer holidays are over 😞
Advertisement
Tot: 0.08s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 26; dbt: 0.0317s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Zan
non-member comment
summer days...
It sounds like you had a great day. We did too! Troy, Xander and I met some of troys mission friends at the sunshine coast. We had breakfast, went for a swim and then the boys did some cable skiing while us girls cheered them on. I put sunscreen on Xander 3 times and he still got burnt. He LOVED the beach. It was his first time. We should all go together some time soon before the summer runs out!