Australia Day

Budgerigars

Today is a special day here in Australia. It is Australia Day, our national holiday which commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney on this day in 1788. The fleet of ships carried many British convicts and soldiers. These people made up the bulk of the first settlers in Australia. Over the coming years, many more shiploads of both convicts and free settlers came from England and other parts to settle in this new land.

Over the years since then, there have been many waves of both emigrants and free settlers from the British Isles, Ireland and many other parts of Europe. This includes my own ancestors who fled religious persecution in the 1830s and 1840s. Many of these settled in other parts of Australia, including here in South Australia.

In more recent times, we have seen many refugees come to our land. These have come from many parts of Asia as well as Africa. I count among my friends some wonderful people who have fled terrible conditions in their homelands, including war, to make Australia their new home. On Australia Day, many of these people new to Australia take on Australian citizenship.

I hope that these new people to our great land appreciate our beautiful land, our wonderful wide open spaces, our huge areas of grasslands and rolling blue mountains, as well as our amazing array of birds native to our country.

Today I will show only a small selection of this beauty to be found here in Australia.

You can see more photos of our beautiful birds, and read more about them on my other site, Trevor's Birding.

Emu

Lorikeets

Galahs

Australian Pelicans