Racy date with destiny

I HAVE a tertiary degree in history, but I am not what some might call a “black armband” historian.

Regardless, I want to bring some clarity to understanding the Australia Day argument.

Every other country which achieved its independence ( one way or another) celebrates that date as its national day.

For Australians it was a rather clerical thing as Federation Day is January 1.

It really only seems relevant every 100 years or so for us, mostly because the holiday is for New Year’s.

The founding fathers realised this and selected what they thought was the second best day for Australia Day.

To the non- indigenous in 1901, this was indisputably the celebration of the coming of the British Empire.

But clear through to the dark days of World War II, other states saw it as some sort of New South Wales bias and it did not have the seeming relevance it is argued to have today.

For the bicentennial of Captain Cook in 1970, the Bank of New South Wales released a long- play record which enthused over the First Fleet’s arrival. Then in 1988, the celebrations hardly mentioned the British Empire.

Of course, the British Empire ceased to exist as such when Fiji became independent in 1965 and we became members of our British Commonwealth.

For the overwhelming majority of Australians, the celebration of the British Empire is irrelevant.

The few whose idealisation of their family history is entwined with conquering the wasted land of “terra nullius” might disagree.

But to call it “Invasion Day” is still a misnomer. The British Empire did not prosecute a strategic plan in a war of conquest. It all happened rather ad hoc – right through to fairly recent times.

My flippant suggestion is to make our national holiday the first Tuesday in November.

We could celebrate together our Australianness while every four years we watch the Americans elect a new king.

It also has a nice horse race in the afternoon which stops the nation anyway.

ROSS CANTLE, South Townsville.