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Post by Peregrine on Jan 27, 2005 3:32:42 GMT
Well, I won't say it, but it does. More specifically, to give the American-friendly explanation ![;)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/wink.png) it's our equivalent to Independence Day. Strictly speaking, our Independence Day would be best celebrated on 1 January (the day that the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 came into effect in 1901). But that's already sort of got a holiday. ![;)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/wink.png) So instead it's held on the anniversary of the landing of the First Fleet.
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Post by Black Cat on Jan 27, 2005 4:33:37 GMT
Since we are at it, happy TĂȘt to all the buddhist!
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Post by North Star on Jan 27, 2005 11:41:42 GMT
The First Fleet? I don't know anything about Australian history. It's too far away! You can give me the British-friendly explanation for that, Peregrine. I prefer my answers to be more than monosyllabic ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png) NS.
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Post by outspaced on Jan 27, 2005 13:13:40 GMT
'The First Fleet' would be Captain James Cook and company in 1788, right? They landed in (and subsequently named) New South Wales.
I was in primary school in 1988 and we did a huge class project about the Bi-centennial celebrations happening in Australia. Don't remember all that much about it, but I remember that vividly.
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Post by North Star on Jan 27, 2005 13:52:36 GMT
I remember Halley's Comet in 1986. I wasn't even seven at the time. I don't however remember doing anything about Australia. *dimly tries to remember what on earth he was doing before he was 9 years old*
NS.
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Post by Peregrine on Jan 27, 2005 19:55:56 GMT
'The First Fleet' would be Captain James Cook and company in 1788, right? They landed in (and subsequently named) New South Wales. Oh come on Outspaced. ![::)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/eyesroll.png) That's almost the Blackadder version (but nobody shot any ostriches--some emus, maybe, but no ostriches). Well done for getting the year right though! Cook's expedition was some years earlier; they did indeed land on the east coast and name it New South Wales. The First Fleet was the first British colonisation (consisting largely of convicts sentenced to transportation). As I recall, they landed at Botany Bay, decided it was unsuitable to colonise, and moved up to Port Jackson (which these days is pretty much all part of the Sydney area).
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Post by outspaced on Jan 27, 2005 22:10:46 GMT
Well, at least I got something right ![:P](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/tongue.png) . Truth to tell, the most vivid memory I have of the Bicentennary celebrations was the TV mini-series of Cpt Cook's voyages, shown on Saturday afternoons, 'cos it had lots of native island women with no tops on. And that was a big thing for a young lad in those halcyon, pre-Internet days. ![;)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/wink.png) Botany Bay was largely named because of that anthropologist artist whose name escapes me who ISTR died at a really young age, but whose drawings of Antipodean flora and fauna was the talk of the Natural History Museum for years afterwards. Or is that completely wrong as well? ![;)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/wink.png)
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Post by Peregrine on Jan 27, 2005 22:48:12 GMT
I wasn't under the impression that the good Joseph Banks died particularly young; he was in fact 77, I now read. I don't recall nor see anything about his secret life as an anthropologist either, just a botanist and naturalist. ![:P](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/tongue.png) Still, you're doing better than the average person, in Australia or out. ![8-)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/cool.png) (Bonus points to anyone who can explain why Australia had a centenary just four years ago...)
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Post by outspaced on Jan 28, 2005 11:21:48 GMT
Who was Sidney Parkinson then? I didn't just make him up, did I?
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Post by Peregrine on Jan 28, 2005 19:23:59 GMT
No, indeed you didn't... in fact you've gone one up on me, because I've never heard of Sydney Parkinson before today. ![:o](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/shocked.png) EDIT: Though I should still point out that it was because of Banks that Botany Bay got its name; Parkinson was at most peripheral as Banks' assistant. (And I might have heard of him, but I don't remember it. ![:))](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/cheesy.png)
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Post by Zipp on Jan 29, 2005 3:56:55 GMT
Sydney Parkinson (1745 - January 1771) was a Scottish natural history artist.
Parkinson was employed by Joseph Banks to travel with him on James Cook's first voyage to the Pacific in 1768. Parkinson made nearly a thousand drawings of plants and animals on the voyage. He had to work in difficult conditions, living and working in a small cabin surrounded by hundreds of specimens. In Tahiti he was plagued by swarms of flies which ate the paint as he worked. He died at sea from malaria and dysentary contracted at Jakarta, on the way to Cape Town.
... man, artists have had it tough for centuries, huh?
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Post by Scarecrow on Jan 30, 2005 14:20:18 GMT
Happy Australia Day, Peregrine! ;D Whereabouts are you from? I'm West Coast, Perth.
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Post by Peregrine on Jan 30, 2005 21:39:34 GMT
Same! ![:D](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/grin.png) At least, when I haven't been shipped off halfway round the world, I'm a Curtin student. Did you see the Skyworks this year? Anything worth being sorry I missed?
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Post by Scarecrow on Jan 30, 2005 23:11:41 GMT
Reall? Wow, what are the odds? Funny thing, if I get through my TEE this year (I'm in Year 12 now ![:-X](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/lipssealed.png) ) I'll be going to Curtin as well. Skyworks were all right. I live in Karrinyup, so I had to ride to the top of a hill with some friends and watch them. Last year I was on my uncle's boat out on the river... THAT was awesome.
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Post by Relenoir on Feb 18, 2005 4:01:52 GMT
What's the point of celebrating Valentine's Day when you don't have a lover? ![:'(](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/cry.png) You know, that's a great point! I celebrate it now (my wife would be very upset if I didn't acknowledge it) but I always felt that every day should be Valentine's day if youaare fortunate enough to have someone special in your life, instead of having one day of the year to make everyone who doesn't feel ostricized and inadequate. Regardless, Happy Valentine's Day to everyone on the forum, and a late Merry Christmas/Happy New Year, and every other holiday I missed as I try to catch up on threads still. ![:-*](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/kiss.png) ;D I couldn't have done it on time anyway, my wife and I were at Disneyworld for the holidays. ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png)
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