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WHERE WE CAME FROM
It’s Australia Day on January 26th. It’s the day that the first Europeans landed in Australia in 1788. Great Britain had overcrowded prisons at the time and required somewhere to house their criminals. America was out of the question as they had gained independence from the motherland. So ships came on the sixth month journey to the other side of the world to settle this wide brown land.
We are a democracy. We can vote and have a say in how our country is run. We have flora and fauna that is unique to Australia. We accept those who are different from us. We are a multicultural people with people coming from so many nations to make Australia their home. Following are lyrics to a well-known Australian song that tells the story of how we became the country we are today.
I AM AUSTRALIAN
I came from the dream-time
From the dusty red-soil plains
I am the ancient heart
The keeper of the flame
I stood upon the rocky shores
I watched the tall ships come
For forty thousand years I’ve been
The first Australian.
I came upon the prison ship
Bowed down by iron chains
I bought the land, endured the lash
And waited for the rains
I’m a settler, I’m a farmer’s wife
On a dry and barren run
A convict, then a free man
I became Australian.
I’m the daughter of a digger
Who sought the mother lode.
The girl became a woman
On the long and dusty road.
I’m a child of the Depression
I saw the good times come
I’m a bushie, I’m a battler
I am Australian.
We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We’ll share a dream and sing with one voice
“I am, you are, we are Australian.”
I’m a teller of stories
I’m a singer of songs
I am Albert Namatjira
And I paint the ghostly gums
I’m Clancy on his horse
I’m Ned Kelly on the run
I’m the one who waltzed Matilda
I am Australian.
I’m the hot wind from the desert
I’m the black soil of the plains
I’m the mountains and the valleys
I’m the drought and flooding rains
I am the rock, I am the sky
The rivers when they run
The spirit of this great land
I am Australian.
We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We’ll share a dream and sing with one voice
“I am, you are, we are Australian.”
We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We’ll share a dream and sing with one voice
“I am, you are, we are Australian”
“I am, you are, we are Australian”
Lyrics by Bruce Woodley and Dobe Newton.
BEING AUSTRALIAN
For me being Australian means being there for those who are doing it tough. We are a courageous nation and we have generosity of spirit. We are strong and resilient. The current bushfire emergency is a great example of how we come together to help each other out in the bad times. Despite personal risk to themselves our firefighters come to the aid of other Australians. We give what we can when we see our fellow Australians suffering.
We have a laidback nature. We don’t take life too seriously. We have a sense of humour that is unique to Australia. We can laugh at ourselves. Even the way we speak English is unique to this part of the world. Many a visitor is perplexed by our Australian slang.
Our true identity is indicative of all that is good in human beings. Thank you to my mother and father for coming to Australia and making a life for my siblings and I to enjoy. I’ve been given so many opportunities and I’m so grateful for this.
Instead of quotes this week I have added poems written by Australians about Australia. Enjoy!
WALTZING MATILDA
Words written in 1895 by Banjo Patterson.
Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong
Under the shade of a coolibah tree,
He sang as he watched and waited ’til his billy boiled
You’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me.
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
You’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me
He sang as he watched and waited ’til his billy boiled,
you’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me.
Down came a jumbuck to drink at the billabong,
Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee,
he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker bag,
you’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me.
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
you’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me
he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker bag,
You’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me.
Up rode the squatter, mounted on his thoroughbred,
Up rode the troopers, one, two, three,
With the jolly jumbuck you’ve got in your tucker bag?
You’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me.
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
You’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me.
With the jolly jumbuck you’ve got in your tucker bag?
You’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, you scoundrel with me.
Up jumped the swagman and sprang into the billabong,
You’ll never catch me alive, said he,
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong,
you’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me.
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
You’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me
his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong,
You’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me.
Oh, you’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me.
MY COUNTRY
Dorothea MacKellar wrote this poem in 1908 while she was visiting England and missing her home country. The second stanza is possibly one of the most well- known and recited pieces of poetry in Australian history.
The love of field and coppice
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies
I know, but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!
The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.
Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.
Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze …
An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand
though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.