Australia Day, 26th January.

Australia Day is important and it is important that we celebrate it on the 26th of January, the day of most significance in the founding of a nation.  

But that is being disputed, with the excuse that it is ‘divisive.’ We all know that there are people now who make a career out of being constantly offended. There has been too much apologising to them, too many attempts at appeasement, but that has only encouraged more and more demands, and more and more unreasonable demands. I think the ‘constantly-offended’ syndrome comes from the desire to have power over others.  It is odd that one can claim victimhood in order to have power, but that is the core of political correctness. At its core, political correctness is bullying.

A very brief history.

In 1786, it was decided to send a fleet to colonise the new territory that Captain Cook had explored.  The fleet set out from England in 1787. It consisted of two naval vessels, six transports and three store ships. The cargo was mostly unwanted convicts.

Governor Phillip had strict instructions in regard to the natives of the new land:

"You are to endeavour by every possible means to open an intercourse with the natives, and to conciliate their affections, enjoining all our subjects to live in amity and kindness with them. And if any of our subjects shall wantonly destroy them, or give them any unnecessary interruption in the exercise of their several occupations, it is our will and pleasure that you do cause such offenders to be brought to punishment."

On first landing – was there a mass slaughter and the beginning of genocide as some have been claiming?  Was it in any way, an ‘invasion?’  Hardly.

Friday, 18th January, 1788.  Several officers and men went ashore to explore, especially looking for fresh water. They failed then, but a little later, they saw a group of natives, put the boats ashore again, and here I quote from the diaries of Lieutenant King.

'They immediately got up and called to us in a menacing tone and at the same time brandishing their spears or lances. However, the Governor showed them some beads and ordered a man to fasten them to the stem of the canoe. We then made signs that we wanted water, when they pointed round the point on which they stood and invited us to land there; on landing, they directed us by pointing to a very fine stream of fresh water. Governor Phillip then advanced toward them alone and unarmed, on which one of them advanced towards him but would not come near enough to receive the beads which the Governor held out for him, but seemed very desirous of having them and made signs for them to be laid upon the ground, which was done. He (the Native) came on with fear and trembling and took them up, and by degrees came so near as to receive looking glasses, etc, and seemed quite astonished at the figure we cut in being clothed. I think it is very easy to conceive the ridiculous figure we must appear to these poor creatures, who were perfectly naked. We soon after took leave of them and returned on board.'

There were more contacts between the new arrivals and the natives, marked by amity and mutual curiosity. Note: amity and mutual curiosity.

Over the next few days,  the remainder of the fleet arrived.

Monday, 21st January, one called Bowes describes the natives.

 'They were all perfectly naked, rather slender made, of a dark black colour, their hair not woolly, but short and curly. Everyone had the tooth next the foretooth in the upper jaw knocked out and many of them had a piece of stick about the size of a tobacco pipe, and 6 or 8 inches in length, run through the septum of the nostrils, to which, from its great similitude, we ludicrously gave the name of a sprit sail yard. They all cut their backs bodies and arm which heal up in large ridges and scars. They live in miserable wigwams near the water, which are nothing more than 2 or 3 pieces of the bark of a tree set up sideways against a ridge pole fastened to 2 upright stick at each end. They are about 2 or 3 feet high and few amongst them are to be found which are weather proof.'

Saturday, 26th January, 1788

By the 26^th January, all of the ships had arrived at Sydney Cove, which was deemed the best place for a new colony. And that day was when a flagstaff was erected, the Union Jack raised,  and possession was taken in the name of the king.

Work parties of convicts did various jobs over the next few days, more convicts were allowed ashore, and finally, Wednesday, 6th February, the women convicts were disembarked.  

These were not good and decent citizens, these convicts. Some say that the Marines and sailors were little better.  In any case, when the women were off-loaded, according to one account (Bowes) : 'The men got to them very soon after they landed, and it is beyond my abilities to describe the scene of debauchery and riot that ensued during the night.' And there was a storm, the sort of storm that Sydney very well knows how to put on. 'the most violent storm of thunder lightning and rain I ever saw. The lightning was incessant during the whole night and I never heard it rain faster.' 

A scene of debauchery, women raped. Not Aboriginal women, but the women convicts. That was the 6th February. That would not be a suitable day to celebrate.

And yet, from these beginnings, a new country began. The land had never been cultivated, its unwilling pioneers were not hand-picked farmers and tradesmen, but instead, those men and women who'd been convicted of a crime not serious enough for execution, but serious enough for the punishment of transportation.

And yet we made it.  We have so much to be proud of. Australia now is one of those countries that people will risk their lives to get to. Australia is a good country to live in.

Aboriginals?  They say it was the beginning of a genocide. But that is nonsense. Those early weeks and months were marked by amity between the natives and the new immigrants, the whites. There were difficult times for the newcomers - they nearly starved to begin with;  they were trying to farm on poor land and the climate was often severe and has always been erratic. A supply ship failed to arrive, rations were cut, and then more convicts arrived, the second fleet. That was 1890.

But the colony did not die. It survived, and gradually began to manage better and better, though it was not until gold was discovered in 1850 that it can really be said to have thrived.

The Aboriginals did not do so well. From April, 1789, an epidemic of Small Pox decimated their numbers, with casualties guessed at as around 70% in those areas close to the NSW colony, and there were reports that it spread a lot further.  Accurate figures would have been impossible to get, so we still know little of just how far it spread and how badly the majority of the Aboriginal population was affected. Some have alleged that it was deliberately introduced, but the chance of that having happening is infinitesimal. For a start, there was no reason to attack the natives. There was no conflict at that time.  And the sophistication of bacteriological warfare in 1778?  Hardly.

Probably, one of the whites was a carrier, and that man came into too close contact with a native, possibly a woman, since women’s favours were bartered from very early.  (King’s diary, 20^th January, natives indicated the women ‘and made us understand their persons were at our service.) The natives’ casualness when offering women for use was probably partly because the relationship between sex and babies was not understood.

Small Pox - I remember a diary entry of the time. The writer speaks of finding a small group of Aboriginals in a ‘piteous condition,’ wanting to help, but they ran from him.

So yes, Aboriginals suffered, and some of that suffering was a direct consequence of the arrival of Europeans. The same has happened in other places, when a native population comes into contact with newcomers bringing new diseases.

But remember that our Australian Aboriginals lived then on the edge of survival. Our land is subject to very severe droughts. Many would have starved in those times. Those who could not keep up with the tribe when they moved on were left to fend for themselves. There would have been no very old people. A diary entry (Tench?) speaks of a baby, whose mother had died, tossed, still alive, into the grave along with its dead mother. No-one had been able or willing to raise it.

The point is that Aboriginals never lived in the sort of idyll that some people seem to imagine. Aboriginals, along with the rest of us, have a great deal to celebrate. 

What about all the massacres they say happened?  What about the 'genocide?'I will not say there were no murders, no massacres. There was a massacre at Myall Creek, for instance. In 1838, between 20 or 30 Aboriginals were killed and their bodies burnt. A couple of girls were saved for use by the men. 

But it was reported to the police, nearly all of the culprits arrested, tried, found guilty and hanged.  If the killing of Aboriginals was routine and sanctioned, as is stated as politically correct ‘fact’ these days, there would have been no arrests, no trials and no hangings. White farmers never made it a weekend sport to kill blacks. That is one of those nonsensical allegations that have become fashionable among certain segments of the population.

These allegations have led to a push to change the date. It is ‘invasion day,’ they say. And that day marked an invasion complete with hundreds of thousands of massacred Aboriginals, a ‘genocide,’ in fact,  and rapes of women.

But it did not happen. Not that day, not ever. There was never a genocide, though obviously there were incidents, as there were incidents of settlers being killed and white children stolen. There was conflict.

But look what we have built together. We do have something to celebrate.  Aboriginals no longer have a mere humpy to call home, they have clothing, reliable food and shelter. There are no longer convicts in chains. 

And the best date to celebrate, the date of the most significance, is January 26^th, when it really began. January 26^th, when the flag was raised.  January 26^th was the birth of a nation. This is Australia Day.  It was celebrated first as Foundation Day or First Landing Day or Anniversary Day, and then in 1818, Governor Macquarie named it a public holiday. In the 1930s, it was changed to the nearest Monday in order to make a ‘long weekend,’ but in 1994, it was decided that the date was too significant to be sacrificed just for a long weekend, and it was celebrated again on January 26^th, whatever the day of the week.

And if the PC mob manage to get it changed, then we should ignore that change. It does not matter if the official date is changed; we celebrate on our day. Because custom and culture come from the people; they are not dictated top down.

Reference
Sydney Cove, 1788.  In the words of Australia's first settlers: the true story of a nation's birth.

Compiled by John Cobley, published 1962.  Note:  published 1962, before any of us had heard of political correctness, and before facts were regarded as problematical if they did not follow the preferred narrative.

 So how will we celebrate on January 26th?  Well, the barbeque has become traditional.

The traditional sausage sizzle

At the pub. 

Or maybe a gathering at the pub?

At the beach

At the  beach?

Boating?

Or in sheer relaxation?

We celebrate on the 26th January.  The politically correct constantly-offended minority have a habit of success right now.  But so what if they succeed in going against what most of us want?

We ignore them.  The official date can be whatever they say,  but there is nothing, NOT A THING! to stop us celebrating on the day that we choose - Australia Day, January 26th.

This web-page belongs to M. A. McRae, author.

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