A weekend of cultural activity

WHAT a wonderful weekend of celebrations.

It is Australia Day weekend as well as the start of the Chinese New Year in an eclectic mix of cultures.

Australia Day epitomises everything Australian in a huge country of contrasts.

It marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet of British ships at Port Jackson, New South Wales, and the raising of the flag of Great Britain at Sydney Cove by Governor Arthur Phillip.

Across the Far North festivities will include citizenship ceremonies, Australia Day awards, barbecues and beers, backyard cricket, pavlovas and lamingtons.

We honour the people who have made the lives of everyone a lot better and congratulate Cairns citizen of the year Yolande Entsch and young citizen of the year Daniel Rosendale.

Along with other winners they represent everything great about the Far North and about being Australian, who have contributed in a unique way to the community and are wonderful role models.

Our residents of Chinese descent, as well as a host of tourists and visitors to the region, are celebrating the year of the rat.

The Chinese are pioneers of the Far North in the region’s market gardens and in the goldfields and now their fellow countrymen and women provide the Far North with its greatest source of tourists.

The festivities started yesterday for two weeks.

But as we enjoy these two highlights of the calendar we need to pause and acknowledge the victims of the devastating bushfires in the south and west of Australia.