Australia Day

The tradition of having Australia Day as a national holiday on 26 January is a recent one. Not until 1935 did all the Australian states and territories use that name to mark that date. Not until 1994 did they begin to celebrate Australia Day consistently as a public holiday on that date. On that day we come together as a nation to celebrate what's great about Australia and being Australian. It's the day to reflect on what we have achieved and what we can be proud of in our great nation. It's the day for us to re-commit to making Australia an even better place for the future.

There are a number of events and ceremonies which have become both a tradition and a symbol of our national day such as Citizenship Ceremonies, Australian Day Breakfast, Parade, Concert and many more other events. This year I volunteered as one of the crew for the Adelaide City Council's Australia Day Parade. Participating in this parade were a lot of communities and organizations. One of them was Indonesian community which won the best costume award. 

 
The parade made it's way from Hindmarsh Square to Elder Park where the Australian Day celebration continued with Ricky Lee Coulter, the Australian Idol winner and Stan Walker in concert followed by a fireworks display. It was here that I met up with David, Vinh and Tri to enjoy the concert together. To my surprise, there's the truck full of shortbread biscuits in the shape of Australia distributed for free. Mind you, there was around 30,000 people there.  

When the Ricky Lee Coultar concert started, Vinh and I went to the front of the stage and together with other audience members, clapped hands, danced and jumped about. I was so tired, but it was so much fun and reminded me of the night out I had in Bali with my UOBI friends.  The fireworks, sponsored by the Commonwealth bank was spectacular. Well, another great night out in my new home.