Subject:  AUSTRALIA DAY |
Author:
eximus
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: Wednesday, January 26, 03:52:56am
Hi Everybody
Today 26/1/05 is Australia Day.That is the day we celebrate the first landing in Australia.
I've attatched a little history lesson.
You guys think your weather is weird,we are in the third year of a drought.In the last week we have been through 2 massive dust storms.The wind was hurricane levil and a lot of people lost the roofs of their houses.It took me three buckets of water to wash my kitchen floor.The dust on the furniture is 1/4 inch thick (no kidding)
Here is the history lesson
In 1606, the Spanish explorer Luis Vaez de Torres sailed through the strait that separates Australia and Papua New Guinea. Dutch explorers charted the north and west coasts and found Tasmania. The first British explorer, William Dampier, landed on the northwest coast in 1688. But it was not until 1770 that his countryman, Captain James Cook, in the Endeavour, extended a scientific voyage to the South Pacific in order to chart the east coast of the continent that had become known as New Holland, and claimed it for the British Crown.
The American war of independence shut off that country as a place to transport convicts, requiring Great Britain to establish a new penal colony. Sir Joseph Banks, the President of the Royal Society, had sailed as a naturalist with Captain Cook, and suggested Australia for this purpose
The First Fleet of 11 ships arrived at Botany Bay in January 1788. Governor Phillip preferred Sydney Harbour and the date he landed in the Harbour, 26 January, is now commemorated as Australia Day. The First Fleet carried 1500 people, half of them convicts
Do you want to hear more?
Carol G
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
| |
