Today 26th January,
Is marked as our national day.
In 1788 the first fleet arrived.
Boatloads of England’s most undesirable
Send never to return,
Good riddance they said, and were forgotten.
Never did they imagine
From such humble beginnings
This great nation would emerge.
We have our skeletons,
Our treatment of our indigenous people
Leaves much to be desired
Our sins against them
In need of more than ‘sorry’.
Change is happening,
Many wonderful people working
To lift their health, levels of education
Preserve their precious heritage.
We are resource rich, evidenced
By massive scars in our landscape
As those precious metals
Are purged from the earth
In the pursuit of the holy dollar.
Massive trains roll past my street,
Carrying these resources
Away to foreign countries
Leaving nothing in their wake.
We compete on the world stage
In all areas of pursuit.
Our writers, sportsmen, artists,
Are known in every country.
We are indeed a lucky country
But we must guard against decimating it
And leaving little for future generations.
Nor should we forget the poor
Not everyone is ‘lucky’
We must care for them.
Who would have thought?
That first day on the shores of Sydney Cove
With bush all around,
Prospects dim to say the least,
That through the blood sweat
And tears of those early settlers
The Australia of today
Evolved, with its unique character,
Personalities, and way of life.
We are blessed.
Happy Australia Day.
Morpethroad 
What a beautiful tribute to your country…..
Thank you, it’s our one day in the year.
Happy Australia Day, this was so proud of. Thank you, love, nia
Thank you Nia. I love reading your comments…and today is a rare cool day…..yippee!!!
Happy Australia Day! I had no idea… thanks for teaching me 🙂
You Poms so easily forget…..lol…..thanks Pooky, have a great day yourself.
Yeah I know. We’re an awful bunch. Sorry about that.. It’s just that London’s the centre of the universe so no need to know about anywhere else… 😉
Yes I know but you did us a great favour, look what we have now, and no chains…..how good is that? Plus and the best bit is we just THRASHED you in the cricket, the world is now back in balance.
I think ‘thrashed’ is probably an understatement….
Any way you look at it was good for us but disappointing for your guys, I did expect more than a token effort.
But the existence of the old colonial rivalry is still strong.
Another one day game today. Good your boys won on Friday. See how they go today. I wonder if we will play our reserve grade team again today?
I’ve completely stopped following it. It’s simply too depressing!
Not for us, but I do see your point. I was never that excited when we were beaten every game.
No, I’m a bit of a fairweather sports fan at the best of times and I don’t have TV….
I’m glad you’re enjoying it though! There is no nicer game that cricket on a beautiful day. I spent many a long sunday sitting in the cricket pavilion at school whilst our first team played.
Happy Australia Day! Thanks for sharing such a cool poem and info! 🙂
Thank you Courtney my pleasure.
and a Happy Australia Day to you to my friend! This was wonderfully written, showing our heritage and what we have grown to be – a nation – a country proud and tall – long may we/it continue ~ we are truly blessed indeed compared to some countries. Waves the flag…(if I had one) 🙂
What no flag, oh dear, then again I don’t either….thank you Jenny, happy Australia Day to you..
I know how sad – lol – thank you (gives you a big ol’ Aussie hug)
And this is an interesting fact, thanks for sharing.
Seems the undesirables became the desirables.
So true Charley, and today we have a very multi cultural society. We’ve come a long way.
Happy Australian day, I didn’t read yesterday so I hope you had a wonderful celebration. Your words are an excellent praise.
Thank Kim, we a good day.
🙂 good!!
Hap, Hap, Happy (Belated) Australia Day!
A day late (your time zone) – I know…but – I wish you happy days every day. 🙂
Thank you sweet RoSy it was a good day, today is the holiday…so a long weekend here.
Nice – I always enjoy long weekends. I won’t have one until May. Now – I just wait…
Well we wait till Easter and then in June we have another