Home News It’s Up To You, Australia, Australia

It’s Up To You, Australia, Australia

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(L) from YouTube Video Babakiuarea (R) 100th anniversary of "Mitey" in 2023, at vegemite.com.au
(L) from YouTube Video Babakiuarea (R) 100th anniversary of “Mitey” in 2023, at vegemite.com.au

by Mary W Maxwell, LLB

G’day, Aussies. No text here, today. Just a heartfelt invitation for y’all to please fill the comments with a memory of some past Oz Day. And/or a musical item.

Let me start the ball rolling:

In January 1989, my spouse and I were living in the Middle East.  We heard there would be an Australian Day gathering at a local picnic area. This was hosted by Australian doctors and nurses who worked in local hospitals.

At that point, I had only 8 years of exposure to aussie ways. The occasion became my “real, real” introduction to the meaning of Oz.  The homesickness of the crew made the day wonderful.  And boy did I get a load of the strength of the Aussie male.

Anyway, my main memory of the goings-on is that they offered a [fake] Australian passport to any local Arabfella who could manage to down a Vegemite sandwich and “crack the whip.” Some could crack the whip fairly impressively after a one-minute instruction, but none could brave an entire sandwich of you-know-what. (Or maybe you don’t know what.  Does anyone really know what goes into Vegemite?)

Now here’s a song offering. Were you there when the English original was most poignantly sung, en masse, at an early protest of the lockdowns in 2020?

Take it away, blokes and Sheilas!

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29 COMMENTS

  1. Thanks Mary,

    But sadly, the last few years has so so so tainted my view of this fair land — all I can see is the extension of the penal colony and the terrible attitudes against children and families. Australia is like a vanilla milkshake… below the froth is a toxic soup. (sorry)

    • As I venture north to Brisbane in a few days to support the defendants and document the crucial Pridgeon & O’Dea court case will be a further test of the Australian spirit of care and justice. Australia is about to be put to the test.

      • No need to apologize, Dee. And yes the fate of the O’Dea/Pridgeon case is going to tell us.

        I can’t think of a past example of a defendant being a “sinner” only because the law was written to label heros as sinners.

        As if Parliament couldn’t change that law this very day….

        (Note, granted Dee and I have both thrown in a sad mention. But would everybody else please dig up something inspiring about Oz? Ta.)

        And NO NEW NEWS about digital currency or chemtrails or beef shortages, K? We have 364 days a year for that at Gumgum.

  2. “But would everybody else please dig up something inspiring about Oz? Ta.” – Dig up, yep, the ladies next door are presently digging up around 40 kilos of lovely potatoes from one of my raised gardens. The conditioning of the soil over the years has produced a beautiful loam like soil that can’t help itself, it just wants to grow things. The girls are restocking the bed with more seed potatoes as they go – it’s something inspiring to see.

  3. January 26 is NSW day, Australia day should be Jan 1, the Federation, in its 124th year already.
    Tasmania foundation Sept 13 1803.
    Queensland and Victoria were previously part of the notional New South Wales, though Melbourne was a colony of Tasmania, via the enterprising John Batman.
    There should be a Batman Day in Victoria but history has been altered. His beautiful hill on the Spencer St train station site was flattened long ago. Even his excellent inner city promenade with tram terminus “Batman Parade” was destroyed, by Jeff Kennett and the local gambling empire, sorry “gaming”, that should be “gaming” as in the government department of “gaming” as they call it, a little switch there for James.
    Western Australia, now in its 194th year, was never part of NSW.
    “HMS Challenger, under Captain Charles Fremantle, anchored off Garden Island on 25 April 1829. Fremantle officially claimed the western part of Australia for Britain on 2 May. The merchant vessel Parmelia – with the new colony’s administrator Lieutenant-Governor James Stirling, other officials, and civilian settlers on board – arrived on the night of 31 May and sighted the coast on 1 June. It finally anchored in Cockburn Sound on 6 June. The warship HMS Sulphur arrived on 8 June, carrying the British Army garrison. The Swan River Colony was officially proclaimed by Stirling on 11 June”.
    Don’t forget what Keating told us, “Australia is part of Asia”
    Let’s just use Chinese New Year for Australia Day then and get ahead of events.

  4. Thank you Mary.

    I am an Australian Patriot who values our history and culture, especially the resilience of our people to the adversity that this big wide brown land tends to throw at them, from time to time.

    I see a people who snub their nose at authority and its over reaching tendency to control, rather than enhance, their lifestyle.

    I see a people who have had enough of being over taxed and over ruled by a dark force called government, a force that has attempted to destroy the very soul of what this land is all about and what it means to many millions of us.

    I see a people who are only too willing to give the shirt off their back to the less fortunate among us, to assist others willingly whenever emergencies arise. To go to the aid of other countries to assist whenever and where ever, an emergency is declared.

    But I also see a people who have become very wizened over the past four years as to where this country is being pushed, and by a tiny minority who have no interest whatsoever in maintaining a viable and healthy country, where a fair go for all who call themselves, Australian, is blatantly mocked and ridiculed at every opportunity, without any due regard for the consequences that they promote.

    The dark forces may endeavor to destroy the character of what it is to be Australian, but they will never destroy the soul of this country and what it is to be Australian.

    Their time of control over this country now done – and they know it!

  5. Mary, you have asked for enjoyable memories. My most treasured memory is of the experience of the 1987 “Welcome Home” parade for Vietnam Veterans held in Sydney.

    I nearly didn’t make it for two reasons. Firstly I wasn’t really enthused about the idea, but my Veteran work mates at the time were going and put pressure on me to attend.
    The second problem was about two weeks before the event I got shingles and my doctor gave me a three week sick certificate. Part the way through the third week I paid him another visit telling him of my plight. After examination he said I was past the contamination stage so I could go back to work and therefore make the trip to Sydney at the end of that week.

    Am I glad I was able to attend. Not only was the March through Sydney emotional, where thousands of people cheered us on, but the feeling of being back alongside troops in uniform was awe inspiring to me. At this stage because of the number of Veterans attending I had not caught up with my 2 Platoon mates of 20 years previous. I was in Vietnam 1967 so August, when the Reunion was held was a 20 year anniversary. As well as the Veterans marching so were current military personnel, leading the way and providing the military bands to march with.

    It was organised by those putting the event together, that each unit of the past would meet at certain venues around Sydney to have there reunion. That meeting, to me, was the best part of the weekend. Living in Western Australia I was out of touch with the lads, who mostly lived in the Eastern States. By the way the lads were now in their forties. What celebrations were carried on and what memories were exchanged ( with a little bullshit)?

    Anyway I came away after three days exhilarated but tired. Addresses had been exchanged, so communications by email or phone was now an option. Our unit has now held several reunions all around Australia at a three or two yearly interval.

    Mary you have just made me relive that weekend. Unfortunately the numbers are dwindling, mostly because of cancer.

    For those who do not know me, I was against Australia’s involvement in Vietnam and still am. However there have been benefits for me since. Although I was unsettled when coming back to civvy street and gave up a career in banking I have experienced many types of employment, never having trouble getting mostly outside work and because I was able to obtain a Veteran pension retired earlier than was planned. The most enjoyable part of my Vietnam experience was the making of lifetime friendships with platoon members.

  6. What interests me is that holy days within some cultures are still venerated as such, the Jewish celebrations being a good example:
    https://www.chabad.org/holidays/default_cdo/jewish/holidays.htm

    The Hindu year is even more spiritually oriented/structured
    https://www.learnreligions.com/hindu-festivals-calendar-1770190

    Whereas there’s no acknowledgement of any supernatural realm per se within Australia, the heart & soul of said nation being commemorated merely by way of government officials and government-appointed personnel getting paid for participating in a beach-side booz-up or whatever else happens to take their fancy.
    No question as to what sort of god would commandeer such a base/unconscious form of worship

    • Here mass spectacle sport is the religion as it was in Rome.
      I don’t fully understand tennis scoring but Djokovic is hanging on by his fingernails. Cool weather in Melbourne, yet another coolish summer in Australia.
      The opponent an Italian named “Sinner” score is on 6-6-6 going to tiebreaker.

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