Meredith News Feb 2021

14 MEREDITH and DISTRICT NEWS
What does Australia Day
mean to you?
Steve Goat
Each year, it seems, the disagreement about January
26th grows and grows. Quite a few people call for
change. Polls tell us most people aren’t against change.
Unfortunately this disunity continues. And why the
26th?
We have no date for the first arrivals, that was over
65,000 years ago. We know the first Asians and
Europeans were here well before Captain Cook arrived
on 28th April, 1770. He only stayed a few months for
Ship repairs. With the American Revolution, the British
had to find somewhere to send convicts. So the First
Fleet landed at Botany Bay on January 18th, then
moved to Sydney Cove on the 25th/26th January 1778.
But it was Matthew Flinders who circumnavigated the
content in 1801-1803. The impact of white settlement
on the locals was huge, in both health and land access.
Smallpox may have killed more than the aggressive
land take over. Grazing animals had a devastating
effect on the ecology.
Britain enacted our Federation in July 1900, so the
federation was declared on January 1st, 1901.
It wasn’t until 26th of January 1948, that Australian
Citizenship was legislated. Until then we had been
British Subjects. Indigenous Australians were not
granted the vote until the referendum of 1967.
So we are much more than a one time colony of
Britain. The Aborigines surely have the oldest claim.
So too, the many peoples, with many cultures from the
four corners of the world that have come to contribute
to modern Australia.
Maybe we do need another day, a truly national day,
without history’s baggage, to come together and
Celebrate all of our cultural diversity.
Enjoy writing?
Well, our readers
enjoy reading.
We should introduce you.