About Page

G'day and welcome.

I was born in Sydney and at an early age moved to Bowral. Almost every Australian has heard of Bowral, the home of Don Bradman. As everyone who knows an iota about cricket will tell you, "The Don," is considered the greatest batsman in the game of cricket. 

Being in Bowral I learnt about The Ashes and Bodyline. Bodyline or Leg Theory was a method designed by the English cricket team captain the infamous Douglas Jardine who asked his fast bowlers to bowl short fast balls at Bradman to knock him out of the game. Literally.

In Social Studies, we learned that the first white explorers were Dutch, like the Dutch explorers Abel Tasman and Dirk Hartog. Australia was first known as New Holland.

We also learned that Captain Cook "discovered" Australia. Actually it was the east coast of New Holland, which he named New South Wales. He also discovered and named New Zealand. Cook, no doubt was one of the great explorers, but little imagination when it came to names.

I also learned that Australia was founded as a penal colony for convicts that could no longer be sent to the Americas. Well, no, not really. Contrary to popular opinion, "Australia" wasn't founded in 1788. On 26th January 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip proclaimed the colony of New South Wales. It was His Majesty's penal colony. The colony of New South Wales, included the entire Eastern half of the continent and New Zealand. Australia did not exist in 1788. 

There is some confusion about "Australia" and Terra Australis. Australians often refer to Australia as Terra Australis. Cook was sent to find an "unknown" continent on his voyages. It was referred to as Terra Australis Incognita , which translates to "the unknown land of the south." New Holland was already well known. That unknown continent is now named "Antarctica." Later on, it was Mathew Flinders who popularised the name of New Holland being called Australia in 1808. Hence the confusion.

On the other hand. there was little mention of Australia's first inhabitant's, the Aboriginal Australians. Formal recognition didn't occur until 1967. There was no mention of the injustices, the way they were treated, even in the 20th century and the Stolen Generations, the mass killings, (see this map) and the fact they have inhabited the continent, estimated now for 65,000 years. But to be fair, the discovery of artifacts that date back 65,000 years happened after I left school, and is still contentious. It is possible, we'll see that time pushed back even further.

65,000 years is a long time. Europeans have been settled in Australia since 1788, almost 250 years. (Note: The 250th anniversary of the first fleet will occur in 2038). 

To represent that period of 250 years we'll use a single tilde "~" to represent 100 years, and a dash "-" for the incomplete century. The time line that Europeans have settled in Australia would look like this: ~~-

The time that Australian Aborigines have inhabited Australia is:  ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ .

Note: Each block of 10 tildes represents 1,000 years. There are 65 blocks.

I believe that the nations of Aboriginal Australians are as important as the founding colonies, and deserve recognition.

That's why the 8th (now to be considered the first point) to represent the first nations of Aboriginal Australians. Then there are 6 for the states, and the final 8th star for the territories. Did you know that originally the flag had 6 pointed stars and the 7th point was originally added to the Commonwealth Star when Australia annexed New Guinea?

Questions

As a child I roamed the bush with my mates. In summer played and swam in the quarry on "The Gib". Bowral didn't have a swimming pool then.

In summer I played cricket in the school yard across the road, but was not good enough to be chosen for the team. And like everywhere else in Australia, it was almost impossible to get the bat or ball off the older kids.

I joined the 1st Bowral Scouts as a Cub. I had lots of fun gained lots of merit badges, but hated that scratchy blue wool uniform -- too hot in summer and with shorts and short sleeves, no warmth at 8:30pm in a Bowral winter that was getting close to 0c.

I also played rugby league for Bowral on Saturdays (by age group) and the school by weight division; (5 stone 7lbs and then 6 stone 7lbs ) on Wednesday afternoons. 

I learnt of the ferocity of Rugby League test matches against the Poms. It wasn't until I was 12 I started to play Rugby Union. 

But I also learnt of the horrors of war and also military disasters; The Somme and Gallipoli in WW1; and the monumental disaster in WW2 that was Singapore, resulting in the POWs of Changi.

It always seemed Australians were off fighting, often on the other side of the world and England was involved. 

Well, not just England, as a child I didn't quite separate England from the United Kingdom or Great Britain. 

So growing up I had a lot of questions...

Why did Australia revere the Queen of England so much?

Don't get me wrong, QE2 has been one of the great monarchs in history. Dare I say that if all monarchs had been as dedicated as she, there would never have been the need for a Magna Carta, a Parliament or Democracy as we know it. So many kings were just despots with "a god given right." QE2 is a gem. But she isn't Australian. 

Why was God Save the Queen our National Anthem?

I sang it at Cubs every Tuesday night?  Who remembers  DYB, DYB, DYB and DO, DOB, DOB? We sang it at school. And I remember as a teen when I was baby sitting and would fall asleep on the lounge, waking up just before the TV station switched off to the national anthem, "God Save the Queen!" just before the white static screen.

And why did we still have Knights and the Queen's Honours?

Having Australian Honours rather than Imperial Honours. Gough Whitlam in the 1972 dropped the Imperial Honours. (Although the Royal Honours keep returning thanks to one specific group of politicians, including "Knighting" the Queen's husband, the Duke of Edinburgh! Thanks Tony. Enough already!)

Why did our flag have the Union Jack on it?

The Union Jack is so common. I remember being puzzled and being told it didn't matter as we were a separate country. Yes, but that's the British Flag, which is made up of the English, Scottish and Irish (but no Welsh) flags. That's a lot of foreign countries flags to have on an independent nation

And did you know that technically the States were under British Crown control until 1986?

I found out only a few years ago, that even though we separated and became a Australia in 1901, the states were still under British Crown control. An oversight, resulted in the bizare situation where the Australian states did not gain their independence from Britain, and instead remained colonial dependencies of the British crown. Only on March 3, 1986, did the Australian Act come into force. It was legislation passed by the British parliaments, the commonwealth and the state. This legislation stated that the Westminster parliament cannot legislate for Australia and that the British government is not responsible for any Australian state. There's a more complete explanation here. Maybe March 6th should become "Australia Day."

But all this being connected to Britain when we are Australians mattered to me and it still does. And yes, I have ancestors who originated in Britain, but I'm not British, or English or Irish or Scottish, I'm Australian!

Many decades later, I have seen changes. Singing Advance Australia Fair and changing one words from "Young and Free" to "One and Free" is a small change, but a big step forward.

Maybe one day we will become a republic with an Australian as head of State.

But we still need a flag of our own, not the Union Jack at night.