© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

Australia Day

Read more about the article Australia Day lament for the common wealth

Australia Day lament for the common wealth

January 26, 2022 Opinion by Greg Ray Australia Day seems a bit irrelevant to me this year. The whole country right now feels like a hijacked airliner. People are squabbling about legroom and locker space and meal choices and window seats and steward service. Wannabes are pushing for upgrades to business class or – dare we even dream? – first class, while nobody seems to have the faintest idea where the flight is heading. I feel like we are hostages, only most of us don’t want to admit it. We want to pretend that whoever is…

Continue ReadingAustralia Day lament for the common wealth
Read more about the article The first Australia Day, July 30, 1915

The first Australia Day, July 30, 1915

At the time of The Great War, the modern conception of Australia Day did not exist. Australia as a nation had only been born in 1901, and even after that a very large proportion of the people who lived in Australia considered themselves to be British, first and foremost. January 26 was celebrated in NSW as "Foundation Day", and the other former colonies had days of commemoration for their own colonial beginnings. During the war, the idea of a national “Australia Day” was introduced as part of a wider fundraising effort where money was raised by…

Continue ReadingThe first Australia Day, July 30, 1915
Read more about the article My heart tells me we should change the date
My great uncle John William "Jack" Allsopp.

My heart tells me we should change the date

I’m glad to be Australian, and I cherish my deep roots in this amazing continent. On my father’s side of my family I can find convict ancestors, brought to the penal colony for attempting highway robbery and for stealing a piece of ribbon from an employer. My mother – born out of wedlock to a woman who couldn't keep her and to a father whose identity we don’t know - was adopted by a big-hearted Salvation Army woman descended from English stock and her part-Aboriginal husband. He was a gentle giant of a man whose indigenous…

Continue ReadingMy heart tells me we should change the date
×
×

Cart