Belated Australia Day Greetings to all our families, friends, and random visitors.

We have been back in Sydney a little over a month now, and we thank our regular visitors to our blog. It is difficult to make endless trips to hardware stores and shopping centres into an interesting narrative, hence it has been quiet on the Waddalog this past month. We’ll see what we can do to remedy that situation in the coming weeks.

The past two years we spent Australia Day quietly in the Dominican Republic and Panama. This year we had a multitude of options from which to choose on how to observe/celebrate Australia Day. There are no official street parades to mark Australia Day, they tend to be reserved for ANZAC Day, similarly fireworks tend to be reserved for New Years Eve (see previous post). Australia Day is celebrated/observed all over the country at a local, state, and national level.

For the descendants of the first immigrants to Australia, 26th January is a day more of remembrance and survival. We went to the Botanic Gardens to see the Woggan-ma-gule Ceremony of song and dance.

Woggan-ma-gule Morning Ceremony, 1

Woggan-ma-gule Morning Ceremony, 2

Woggan-ma-gule Morning Ceremony, 3

Woggan-ma-gule Morning Ceremony, 4

Woggan-ma-gule Morning Ceremony, 5

Woggan-ma-gule Morning Ceremony, 6

We walked around Farm Cove and saw one of the sporting events, a quick dip in the harbour and swim around a marked course starting from the Opera House. From there we walked to the south-east pylon of the Harbour Bridge and had a bird’s eye view of the annual ferry race from Fort Denison to Shark Island and back down the Harbour to the Bridge. Fortunately, we were able to shelter from the rain, when it came belting down the harbour, unlike the folks on Bridge Climb.

Now that's what I call a courtesy flag

Seems there's a celebration of some sort going on

The annual ferry race

And the hangers-on

At the finish line under the Harbour Bridge

View to the west with Anzac Bridge in background and The Pill in the foreground

Next, it was time to embrace contemporary multi-cultural Australia: we walked up to the Town Hall stopping en route at one of the few cafes that were open and had a toasted foccaccia sandwich and exotic fruit/vegetable juice (who knew beetroot, carrot, celery and parsley make a good lunch time drink?) served by the very welcoming Chinese Australian proprietor.

At the Town Hall we learned that the citizenship ceremony we had come to observe was actually taking place in Hyde Park, so we hot footed it over to there. Hyde Park was a sea of, quite frankly, tacky all things Australiana (hats, shorts, T shirts, sun visors, thongs, temporary tattoos) all with the flag motif and probably all imported. The citizenship ceremony, like the Woggan-Ma-Gule Morning Ceremony, was surprisingly moving. Each of the 17 new citizens had their supporting group of family and friends in the crowd, the procession led by one of the Aboriginal leaders from the Morning Ceremony. Of those 17 new citizens, 6 had completed their tertiary education in Australia, most of them with advanced degrees.

Citizenship Ceremony, Hyde Park

We returned home after the citizenship ceremony, plum tuckered out, but able to catch the last of the day’s play in the cricket test.

We had managed to tick off most of the items on our Australia Day list, however there was just the small matter of the First Fleet that I had learnt about at primary school decades ago. So, Australia Day + 1 was a visit to the Hyde Park Barracks, a recently designated World Heritage Site.

Hyde Park Barracks, designed by architect convict Francis Greenway, 1819

All manner of hand tools from the early days of the Colony of New South Wales

Clay pipe discovered during the excavations and restoration of Hyde Park Barracks

Re-constructed convict dormitory, Hyde Park Barracks

All in all, 2 grand days out.

Margaret and Moe

New Years Greetings to all our families, friends, and random visitors. We hope you all enjoyed bringing in the new year. For us, this was the first time for several years that we watched New Years Eve fireworks from land rather than the moving surface of the deck. Consequently, we have photos from the fireworks display. Fireworks were a weekly event in Panama City, and were sometimes let off during daylight hours as well.

In Sydney, the sale of fireworks is prohibited, however there are two huge public fireworks displays to bring in the New Year: it’s a big deal here (well, for one night of the year). A lot of people come into the city and harbour foreshore to stake out their favourite viewing spot, some even camping out to ensure they get an uninterrupted view. The Harbour Bridge is the star of the show, and several of the CBD/downtown buildings are also used as launch areas.

We have not seen the Sydney New Years Eve Fireworks for several years and were impressed all over again with the variety of colours and coordination of firings from several locations.

Let’s get on with the show.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year

We heard on the radio that the blue fireworks were a nod to the NSW Police, who celebrate their 150th anniversary in 2012

Happy 150th Birthday!

Happy New Year

Wishing you a colourful new year

Daisy fireworks

Harbour Bridge all lit up

Wishing you an eco friendly new year

Co-ordinated launchpads and colour co-ordinated fireworks

May your new year be golden

The buildings in the CBD/downtown (over on the far right) get in on the act

All manner of colours

Giant sized Koosh balls

Pin cushions/ sea urchins

Red sky at night...

Happy New Year

And one more time: Happy New Year...who torched the Bridge?

After the fireworks had finished, an armada of small boats spent the next hour returning to their moorings and berths

One of the many small boats returning home after a Grand Night Out

It must be time for some champagne, errh, sparkling wine, or perhaps just trundle off to bed.

All the best to all our visitors for 2012

Margaret and Moe