Australia Day - Shifting the Date

[Gavin Excell]

When I was a kid, there were two Bonfire/Cracker Nights each year:

Empire Day was observed in state schools from 1905 with a program of addresses, pageants and patriotic songs, with children swearing allegiance to King and Empire with a loyal declaration. Also known as Flag Day, Empire Day saw the city decorated with flags on principal buildings and cable trams. The Empire Day Movement issued badges and Union Jack cards, with flags and buttons sold to raise money for the Lord Mayor's Fund, Red Cross and Queen Victoria Hospital. During Empire Shopping Week, shoppers were encouraged to buy Australian-made products or goods of Empire origin. Commemorative meetings, dinners and speeches were hosted across city and suburbs by the English Speaking Union, the Australian Women's National League, the Royal Empire Society and the Royal Colonial Institute. Local patriotic societies hosted suburban street carnivals, and in the 1930s a torchlight procession through the decorated streets of Surrey Hills and Balwyn climaxed at an annual Empire Day bonfire and fireworks hosted by the Advance Balwyn League. Empire Day was primarily a Protestant celebration, often the subject of sectarian debate and opposed by a Catholic hierarchy whose annual festival equivalent was St Patrick's Day. Opponents of the movement occasionally interrupted commemorative activities: in 1929 communists were accused of throwing stink bombs during an Empire rally at the Royal Exhibition Building. Originally celebrated on 24 May (Queen Victoria's birthday), popular observance declined in the postwar period. Renamed (British) Commonwealth Day in the 1950s, and moved in 1966 to 11 June (Queen Elizabeth II's birthday), it was more commonly known as Cracker Night and celebrated by bonfires and the lighting of fireworks until stricter government regulation reduced their availability.
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PS Guy Fawkes' Night was definitely, for a long part of its history, intended and understood to be anti-Catholic, but by the 50s it had ceased to be anything but an excuse for a good time. Like Australia Day. And the numerous Catholic kids and families in the neighbourhood joined in just as enthusiastically as everyone else.

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I remember the days you could around early Nov buy fireworks from the local milk bar.

I was dirty when they were banned but in retrospect allowing 10 year old kids to have free access to Tom Thumbs, Skyrockets and Catherine Wheels was a tad musguided. Of course this was back in the days before seat belt laws where safety was an optional extra.

 

[FredLeDeux]

I remember the days you could around early Nov buy fireworks from the local milk bar.

I was dirty when they were banned but in retrospect allowing 10 year old kids to have free access to Tom Thumbs, Skyrockets and Catherine Wheels was a tad musguided. Of course this was back in the days before seat belt laws where safety was an optional extra.

Yeah, you could get crackers just about anywhere, and you'd hear them going off for at least a week or two prior to the night.
And of course they were dangerous, kids were injured and maimed ever year, and banning them was probably the only safe solution.
Mind you, it wasn't only kids who took risks, I remember one year the bonfires were all soaking wet after days of rain, and some of the neighbours got a bit antsy when dad's solution was to set ours alight with a therapeutic (thaumaturgic?) dose of petrol.

 

[Power Raid]

I remember the days you could around early Nov buy fireworks from the local milk bar.

I was dirty when they were banned but in retrospect allowing 10 year old kids to have free access to Tom Thumbs, Skyrockets and Catherine Wheels was a tad musguided. Of course this was back in the days before seat belt laws where safety was an optional extra.

Yep, I thought it pretty funny when we bought a car with seat belts in the back. As a kid I thought, who plans to have an accident.

My Indo wife asked her driver "what's this?" Whilst tugging on the seat belt. He shrugged his shoulders and said "I don't know".

It wasn't until she jumped into a cab in Singapore at the age of 10, that she realised the strap thing connects to the thing in the middle.

 

[swingdog]

I was dirty when they were banned but in retrospect allowing 10 year old kids to have free access to Tom Thumbs, Skyrockets and Catherine Wheels was a tad musguided. Of course this was back in the days before seat belt laws where safety was an optional extra.

Having just about had my head taken off by a six year old who pointed his rocket at me during New Year's celebrations in the Netherlands (where personal fireworks are still legal), I'm inclined to agree.

Have generally noticed that there seem to be more and more illegal fireworks being set off around the neighbourhood each year. Drives the dog crazy.

 

[NSWCROW]

 

[Tiger08]

All this nonsense about statues and Australia Day is horrible timing for the SSM lobby. Shouldn't matter but..

 

[Reynolds Number]

 

[NSWCROW]

Not sure what that has to do with the subject but here's a anyway

 

[Reynolds Number]

Not sure what that has to do with the subject but here's a anyway

Just a reminder of his moronic logic.

Anyhow back on topic, Stan has a point and it is hilarious the bile being thrown at him.

I will celebrate Australia Day with beers etc. but it doesn't bother me what those councils have done. Much more concerned with the divisive mouth breathing parochial nonsense that also partly ruins this period.

 

[NSWCROW]

Just a reminder of his moronic logic.

Anyhow back on topic, Stan has a point and it is hilarious the bile being thrown at him.

I will celebrate Australia Day with beers etc. but it doesn't bother me what those councils have done. Much more concerned with the divisive mouth breathing parochial nonsense that also partly ruins this period.

If he could back up the bravado with actual physical exertion i'd lend it more credence....but he's just a wet fart.
******* damp squib


Relic

 

[strung_out7]

Vandalism of statues relating to Australian history over night. I wonder who could be behind this

 

[strung_out7]

Maybe the date should be abolished. It signified the birth of a once great nation, a day to celebrate everything great about it. Remove it and create a date celebrating the death of Australia, as this country is not what it once was

 

[Maggie5]

Maybe the date should be abolished. It signified the birth of a once great nation, a day to celebrate everything great about it. Remove it and create a date celebrating the death of Australia, as this country is not what it once was

When are you leaving?

 

[sherb]

Vandalism of statues relating to Australian history over night. I wonder who could be behind this

It wasn't me.

 

[Illinois Nazi]

Vandalism of statues relating to Australian history over night. I wonder who could be behind this

I'm sure it will change a lot of people's minds on the issue.

 

[Kram]

 

[sherb]

Senseless and pointless. Morons.

 

[Power Raid]

Vandalism of statues relating to Australian history over night. I wonder who could be behind this

some peace loving tolerant group who rewrite history

 

[Power Raid]

we should give them what they want

change the date to the 20th of January and rewrite history referring to the first fleet to the 20th

 

[JackOutback]

some peace loving tolerant group who rewrite history

Geez, get some perspective, it's a little spray paint, not terrorism. Also, correcting history is technically rewriting it. But history without truth is propaganda.

Not how I would have handled it, but I'm not going to stir up any outrage over it either.

 

[strung_out7]

Geez, get some perspective, it's a little spray paint, not terrorism. Also, correcting history is technically rewriting it. But history without truth is propaganda.

Not how I would have handled it, but I'm not going to stir up any outrage over it either.

A little spray paint over some aboriginal rock art also acceptable ?

 

[Power Raid]

Geez, get some perspective, it's a little spray paint, not terrorism. Also, correcting history is technically rewriting it. But history without truth is propaganda.

Not how I would have handled it, but I'm not going to stir up any outrage over it either.

perspective? and then proceeds to refer to terrorism

hmmmm

 

[King Brown]

If it wasn't for Macquarie god knows how s**t the colony, and country, would have been. He was pivotal in it becoming the mostly egalitarian country it is today.

 

[Illinois Nazi]

If it wasn't for Macquarie god knows how s**t the colony, and country, would have been. He was pivotal in it becoming the mostly egalitarian country it is today.

But but but genocide!

 

[JackOutback]

perspective? and then proceeds to refer to terrorism

hmmmm

You referred to them sarcastically as 'peace loving', suggesting they were violent. Our society has become so restrictive, so soft to protest, that a bit of spray paint makes us brick ourselves.