General Chat

To all Aussies, whether you immigrated here or you were born here.

Australia Day, 26 January, is the anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet of 11 convict ships from Great Britain, and the raising of the Union Jack at Sydney Cove by its commander Captain Arthur Phillip, in 1788
A time to celebrate......raise a glass, light up the B.B.Q... and remember all those that came before us. Those who fought in the wars to protect us, and those that laid the foundations to make this great Country a safe place to live in.....God bless them all.


Have a great day, and dont forget to chuck a laaaaaamb chop on the Bar-bie.....;>))

Av a good un

Tony ( Victoria Australia )

TO MY UPSIDE DOWNER FRIENDS
XXXXXXXXX

Happy Australia Day to you too, Tony, and to all Aussies at home or overseas today.

Sue in West Australia....

We've just done our bit for the special day. A barbie, a beer and we are now waiting for the cricket to start. The weather is brilliant and the flies stayed away. What more could an Aussie wish for!!

Aussie Day check list:

Weather ( around 32c plus )
Skies....Blue
Zinc Cream.... On
Shorts.... On
Thongs....On
Sunnies...On
Fridge.....Full or Chocka
B.B.Q......Lit
Salads...Cold
Aussie flag....Flying High
Cricket........On
Swimming Pool....Cleaned
Music.........John Williamson or Lee Kernaghan...On
Sweets........Pavlova or Lamington


Its a dirty job...but someone has to do it.



Tony....;>))

Tony, don't forget Slip, Slop, Slap - you forgot your hat!! An Akubra with corks dangling perhaps .....??

Sue...

Happy Australia Day all:-))

True Blue..

Hey True Blue, don't say you've gone
Say you've knocked off for a smoko
And you'll be back la-ater on
Hey True Blue, Hey True Blue

Give it to me straight, face to face
Are you really disappearing
Just another dy-ying race
Hey True Blue

True Blue, is it me and you
Is it Mum and Dad, is it a co-ockatoo
Is it standin' by your mate when he's in a fight
Or just Vegemi-ite
True-ue-ue Blue, I'm a-asking you

Hey True Blue, can you bear the load
Will you tie it up with wire
Just to keep the show on the road
Hey True Blue
Hey True Blue, now be Fair Dinkum

Is your heart still there
If they sell us out like sponge cake
Do you rea-eally care
Hey True Blue

True Blue, is it me and you
Is it Mum and Dad, is it a co-ockatoo
Is it standin' by your mate when she's in a fight
Or just Vegemi-ite
True-ue-ue Blue, I'm a-asking you...

True Blue, is it me and you
Is it Mum and Dad, is it a co-ockatoo
Is it standin' by your mate when he's in a fi-ight
Or just Vegemi-ite
True-ue-ue Blue, True-ue-ue Blue

Carole...Victoria, Australia.

SusanWA.

Dont need any corks on me Akubra.
I didnt make the same mistake as my father and his father.

I had trained my kids in the 70s to catch flies on a Bar-bie day.......... and pull the wings off them, and this has been passed down to my grandkids, soooo in my family we have done away with the dangling corks now days.

Please keep this a secret, as i am trying to breed a new type of wingless Aussie Flies



Carolee. A'aaaaah one of me favourite songs.


Tony.....;>))

Happy Australia Day to you all,


Lizx

Thanks Liz.

Hope all is well.


This is an old land

For ever nurtured and nourished
by the spirit of the Rainbow Serpent.
The land of the Darug people,
Of the Darginung and the Dharawal,
The Gundungurra and the Guringai.


An old land.


This is the new land of the convict and the refugee,
Of the European settler,
Of the Asian and the African,
The American and the Islander.
It is the golden hope-filled land.


A hope-filled land?


This is the silent sun-baked land
Of the gibber plain and granite outcrop
Of the waterhole and the rain forest
Of native title and pastoral lease
Of skyscraper and empty reservoir.


A golden land?


This is a land battered and blackened by bush fire
But look! a land of grass trees green-shooting
in the still dark-smouldering ashes;
Of wildflowers in the sun-heat-blighted desert
And of cities glistened smog-free by an autumn wind.


A sacred land!


This is the Dreaming land, the land of spirit ancestors
Of campfire and corroboree, of rock art and cave painting
A land of mosque and temple, of prayer book and philosophy text
A land of tribal elders and politicians.

And how slowly we have learnt, 60,000 years slowly, how to live with this land
And how slowly we have learnt, 200 years slowly, not to abuse this land
And how slowly we are learning, day-by-day slowly, how to share this land.

We who are black of skin, and white and brown and yellow
And sunburnt pink
Native and newcomer
Blue-eyed and brown-eyed and black-haired and fair-haired

We will live in harmony in this land
Because this is the Land of the Rainbow Serpent
And we are the Rainbow People.


Tony

WE ARE AUSTRALIAN


I came from the dreamtime from the dusty red soil plains
I am the ancient heart, the keeper of the flame
I stood upon the rocky shore
I watched the tall ships come
For forty thousand years I'd been the first Australian.


We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We share a dream and sing with one voice:
I am, you are, we are Australian.

I came upon the prison ship bowed down by iron chains.
I cleared the land, endured the lash and waited for the rains.
I'm a settler.
I'm a farmer's wife on a dry and barren run
A convict then a free man I became Australian.


We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We share a dream and sing with one voice:
I am, you are, we are Australian.

I'm the daughter of a digger who sought the mother lode
The girl became a woman on the long and dusty road
I'm a child of the depression
I saw the good times come
I'm a bushy, I'm a battler
I am Australian


We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We share a dream and sing with one voice:
I am, you are, we are Australian.

I'm a teller of stories
I'm a singer of songs
I am Albert Namatjira
I paint the ghostly gums
I am Clancy on his horse
I'm Ned Kelly on the run
I'm the one who waltzed Matilda
I am Australian


We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We share a dream and sing with one voice:
I am, you are, we are Australian.

I'm the hot wind from the desert
I'm the black soil of the plains
I'm the mountains and the valleys
I'm the drought and flooding rains
I am the rock, I am the sky
The rivers when they run
The spirit of this great land
I am Australian


We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We share a dream and sing with one voice:
I am, you are, we are Australian
I am, you are, we are Australian.

Another of my favorites....

I Love A Sunburnt Country...

Written by Dorothea MacKellar (1908: written 1906)


The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded Lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens,
Is running in your veins;
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies -
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of drought and flooding rains,
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me.

The tragic ring-barked forests
Stark white beneath the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
An orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the crimson soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart around us
We see the cattle die -
But then the grey clouds gather
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold;
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land -
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand -
Though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown Country
My homing thoughts will fly.

Thanks,Carolee and Tony,those words really make me feel proud to be an Aussie.I'm a 4th generation Aussie and proud of it! I'm just home from work now-fancy having to work on Australia Day,I must have rocks in my head!!! So now I'm going to enjoy what's left of Australia Day.Have a great day,fellow Aussies.

Best wishes,

Margot. xx

PS Now all we need are the words to "Waltzing Matilda" and our National Anthem!

Happy Australia Day Aussie cobbers.

Sue xxx

Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong
Under the shade of a coolibah tree,
And he sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me"

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me"
And he sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled,
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me".

Down came a jumbuck to drink at that billabong,
Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee,
And he sang as he stowed that jumbuck in his tucker bag,
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me".

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me"
And he sang as he stowed that jumbuck in his tucker bag,
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me".

Up rode the squatter, mounted on his thoroughbred,
Down came the troopers, one, two, three,
"Where's that jolly jumbuck you've got in your tucker bag?"
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me".

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me"
"Where's that jolly jumbuck you've got in your tucker bag?",
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me".

Up jumped the swagman and sprang into the billabong,
"You'll never take me alive", said he,
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong,
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me".

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me"
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong,
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me."
"Oh, You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me."

Sue xx

Australians all let us rejoice
For we are young and free
We've golden soil and wealth for toil
Our home is girt by sea
Our land abounds in nature's gifts
Of beauty rich and rare
In history's page, let every stage
Advance Australia Fair
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia Fair

Beneath our radiant Southern Cross
We'll toil with hearts and hands
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands
For those who've come across the seas
We've boundless plains to share
With courage let us all combine
To Advance Australia Fair
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia Fair

Sue xx

I Still call Australia Home...

I've been to cities that never close down,
from New York to Rio and old London town,
but no matter how far or how wide I roam,
I still call Australia home.

I'm always travelIing, I love being free,
and so I keep leaving the sun and the sea,
but my heart lies waiting over the foam,
I still call Australia home
.

All the sons and daughters spinning 'round the world,
away from their family and friends,
but as the world gets older and colder,
it's good to know where your journey
ends.
Someday we'll all be together once more,
when all of the ships come back to the shore,
Ill realise something I've always known,
I still call Australia home.

but no matter how far or wide I roam,
I still call Australia I still call Australia, I still call Australia home.
but no matter how far or wide I roam,
I still call Australia I still call Australia, I still call Australia home.

Carole :-))

Hi Tony glad to see you are still around! Happy Australia Day,What ever happened to us Aussies learning at school the old folk songs?I use to love them ,but now I find it hard to remember them, *Theres a track winding back to an old fashioned shack.or Give me a home among gum trees with lots of plum trees. Yer we love this place, Deb

Happy Australia Day to you and yours Tony.,and to all my Aussie mates scattered across your great country!
Mau xxx

Dear Oz Cousins and Friends

Hello

Hope you have enjoyed celebrating the day, wherever you are and may you have peace, good health and fortune.

PS The new year firework displays are so good to watch.

Take care
Very best wishes
xx