Australia Day
January 26
Australia celebrates
Clink-clank-clink. Barefoot prisoners in chains trudge along the road.
All around them are guards with rifles, ready to shoot to kill.
But these people aren’t really prisoners and guards. They’re part of
celebrations in Sydney, Australia’s oldest and largest city. The
marchers are showing people what it was like in Australia about two
hundred years ago.
On January 26, 1788, a fleet of ships landed at what is now Sydney.
These ships, under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, had brought a
load of prisoners from England.
These prisoners, or convicts as they were called, were not all desperate
criminals. Some were people who had been put in jail because the
government didn’t like them. Some were poor people who had been arrested
because they owed money. But they were the first Europeans to settle in
Australia.
Since then, millions of more Europeans have chosen Australia as their
homeland. And wherever they’re from, they all take part in celebrating
Australia Day, a national holiday, on a Monday, on or near January 26.
During the last weekend in January, Australians enjoy the folk dances
and happy music of the many national groups that make up their land.
The dancers and musicians appear in the oldest part of Sydney, called
The Rocks. This hilly area is near the harbor where the first Europeans
landed.
The landing in the harbor is staged every year. Nearby, the army fires
cannons in honor of Australia Day.
On Australia Day, people reenact the first landing at Sydney,
Australia’s oldest city. The Sydney Opera House, a famous landmark, can
be seen in the background.
