Australia Day, though, is different things to different people. To some it is indeed a celebration of what it means to be Australian. For others, particularly indigenous Australians, it is symbolic of a new culture that devastated the old; many go so far as to call it Invasion Day. To others, it's just another day off and an excuse, as if Australians needed any, to gather with friends around familiar quarters and drink beer.
Our host had promised us a somewhat unique Australia Day experience. In all the time I've been in Australia my Australia Days have been pretty low key. Unlike Ottawa which has buskers, extravagant shows and acrobatic flying, Canberra doesn't seem to put on much of a show. The fireworks are reasonably good, not only because they explode fairly low overhead, but beyond that there really isn't much done. In Melbourne, I was fairly certain that there would be something going on. Our host, though, gave us a more or less traditional Australia Day which entailed cooked sausages, beer and sitting on the beach with a myriad others doing the same. And you know what, I had a great time.
After buying and preparing our sausages, our host said, with a mix or sarcasm and irony, that we would do something decidedly un-Australian and that was honour aboriginal Australians. In a park not too far from his apartment there is a tall tree call the Aboriginal tree. It is quite old and is believed to have been used by local aboriginals to make canoes. It isn't much to look at but it's historical significance makes it worth a short trip.
From the park, we walked to the St. Kilda beachfront and sat on the grass. There were many other people there lounging about, playing cricket and engaging in another Australian tradition, listening to the Triple-J Hottest 100. Triple-J is a radio station that plays mostly non-commercial genres and every year on Australia Day they count off the top 100 songs of the previous year as voted by the listeners. People sort of make a point to listen to them all to hear what song made it to #1. I'm sorry to say that the Barons of Tang didn't make the list.
As we sat on the grass, we enjoyed some sausages and company as some of our host's friends had turned up. We had picked up some beer in a local store earlier and I was so surprised to see that Foster's was actually sold; I was so surprised I took a photo. Although Foster's is one of the world's best selling beers and is perhaps the beer most people associate with Australia, it is virtually impossible to find in Australia. No self respecting Australian would drink Foster's and the general consensus is that it is the equivalent of swill. Other beers were on hand and I think Isabella tried her first Victoria Bitter, or VB.
One think I noticed which was a bit unusual was the lack of non-Caucasian persons in the crowd. While Melbourne is one of the most multicultural cities in Australia, not many of the non-European ethnicities seemed to be represented. I thought it strange but I'm told that's the norm.
After a good long spell at the beachfront, we all took a walk and continued the party at the St. Kilda Botanical Gardens. There were a few more people there with their friends playing around and just generally having a good time. I witnessed some young lads getting a ball out of a palm tree using a metal pole. The whole Australia Day was fairly lively, but not hectic, although I suspect in the city it might have been so. With the sun setting we eventually reached #1 on the Hottest 100, which happened to be Julia and Angus Stone's Big Jet Plane.
An Australia Day with friends and no injuries is always a good one. This was Isabella and my last day in Melbourne. Tomorrow we were heading to my town, Canberra and the excitement therein. Turning in for the night, I remember thinking how pleasing it was that we only had 1 more long driving day ahead.
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