With Australia Day tomorrow I got this message "The Truth of Australia Day"

[crowie]

G’day Friends,
With Australia Day tomorrow I got this message from an old Navy mate, good read!
Cheers Peter

The Truth of Australia Day

The Truth of Australia Day.pdf

[Hodgo]

This is very interesting, I've always been interested in aus history

however, I've just finished reading this : 6 important facts Australians should know about January 26.

so which one is correct

[Pac man]

How the 1938 Day of Mourning launched the modern January 26 rally - ABC News

[Boringgeoff]

I've seen the article Crowie linked to previously, and read all three contributions this morning, with interest. Reading todays edition of the West Australian, on page 13, reporter Ben O'Shea has an opinion piece that debunks Crowies article, as b/s, and offensively stupid. In this day and age who can you believe?

Cheers,
Geoff.

[Hodgo]

After a bit of a flick thru my copy of "the Fatal shore" by robert hughes, I refreshed myself of the details

the english fleet led by captain phillips parked up in botany bay on 18th jan 1788, somewhat dissatisfied with botany bay

la perouse was also there at the same time with his fleet

they sent scouts off which headed overland towards what is now sydney harbour

when they came back with their spectacular discovery, the fleet decided to relocate to SH,

la perouse also got moving at the same time, creating panic in the british fleet whilst they seemingly tried to beat the french to SH

la perouse went straight ahead at the heads and was never heard from again

phillips hoisted the english flag in sydney harbour (port jackson) on 26/1/1788

Hodgo

[havabeer69]

that's a copy and paste that has been circulating for years... it's not written by anyone's navy mate.

and turns out quite a bit of it is wrong

No, this is not 'the real reason' Australia Day is celebrated on January 26 - Australian Associated Press

Professor Frank Bongiorno, from the Australian National University’s School of History, told AAP FactCheck in an email that Australia Day is celebrated on January 26 to mark the date the First Fleet, led by Captain Arthur Phillip, arrived in Sydney Cove in 1788.The post states, correctly, that Captain Cook landed in Sydney on the 28th of April, 1770. It also states that the First Fleet arrived in Botany Bay on January 18, although it omits the year, which was 1788.
It then states that “the 26th was chosen as Australia day for a different reason” without mentioning what that reason is.
The post goes on to say that in the “extravagant bicentenary celebrations of 1988” Sydney-siders “decided Captain Cook’s landing should become the focus of the Australia Day commemoration”.
Professor Helen Irving, a constitutional law expert from the University of Sydney, told AAP FactCheck in an email that the post is “full of confusions”.
Prof Irving said the 1988 bicentenary marked the arrival of the First Fleet in Sydney in 1788.
“The first boat of the First Fleet landed at Botany Bay on 18 January, 1788, but the Fleet then moved to Port Jackson (what became Sydney), where on 26 January 1788, the British flag was raised,” she told AAP FactCheck.
“It was the First Fleet’s arrival in 1788 that was marked at (the bicentenary) in 1988, not Cook’s arrival.”