Aussie, Aussie, Aussie...

To me Aussie mates, whatever you're doing on

the 26 January,
have a great
Australia Day Celebration!

That includes all those visiting our shores.

If in Sydney, grab a schedule of events and head off to Sydney Harbour (ok, so I'm prejudice).

There'll be lots going on, in and around the place -
then stay on for the fireworks later at night!

Cheers

LS
​

 

Thanks and likewise.....being from down South just out of Melbourne we will be having a family BBQ and then will try to find a good vantage point (maybe the observation deck on top of Mount Dandenong) to watch the fireworks......hopefully we will have a break from all this hot weather so we don't have a total fireban day which will put an end to all the fireworks and the BBQ.........
http://d3lp4xedbqa8a5.cloudfront.net/s3/digital-cougar-assets/AusGeo/2016/02/19/60590/Aus_Flag2.jpg

 

Gosh. Seasonal snow around our skiing areas never seem to have the same sort of weather you appear to have in the States. Really feel for you guys.

LauraR, I always thought you were based in Hawaii? Or was it another member?

Thanks for your good wishes...our Australia Day is pretty much like your 4th of July...pretty big down here.

Since the Mabo* case back in the 1990s', we've much adjusted our celebrations over the years, by pulling in indigenious traditions.

For example, one year, there was indigenious song sung from the top of our Sydney Harbour Bridge as part of an opening ceremony for Australia Day which exquisitively showed the beauty of our natives. This was followed by indigenious dancers in full paint and dress going through traditional moves at the Opera House by Sydney Harbour.

Also now at any ceremonies (right down to building sites even if only before the holding of meetings/conferences by legal/parliamentary representatives - and some other organisations who know to show respect), before any opening speech, respect is verbalised to the Elders (if present) along with recognition of the name of the tribal land we stand on, offering our thanks.

So now I find a new richness in our celebrations with the sensitivity shown that we had taken this land from its natives by including their stories.














* The legal case - Mabo v Queensland (No 2) was a landmark High Court of Australia decision in 1992 recognising native title in Australia for the first time.

 

Omigosh!

Australia Day without a BBQ! Unheard of!

Hope there won't be any fire bans your way on the day - sounds like a great planned day too, in a typically beautiful mountain bush surround - sounds simply wonderful...enjoy!

Me? I'll be on the water, cruising around, stopping at different points as planned events occur on land near the water. At one point our vessel will join in the water races which gets quite rough with the turbulence of wakes from other racing (and faster) vessels! Really get thrown about on deck during these races - all fun...morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea will be typical Aussie gourmet BBQ of sausages, prawns, chicken, lamb, salads, rolls, and our yummy Aussie desserts right down to Lammington Cakes! Yum! My favourite! And Pavlova! (I'll save some dessert for you TimW)

Later we'll be hanging around the pub(s) for the fireworks. Should be fun..

Cheers

LS

 

Have a great time! I love me some BBQ!

 

Sounds like a busy day but still a lot of fun, enjoy LS......down here during Moomba celebrations they have dragonboat races and bathtub races on the Yarra River, but we know it is really an excuse to have a great big water fight so is this the type of boat race you have in mind

Thanks Fred and BBQs are so simple and so darn tasty.......mmmmm........and what is better than standing around with a few ice cold beers talking sh*t with your friends while the meat is cooking. This year we will be having prawns, lamb cutlets, sandwich size pieces of eye fillet steak and sausages to snack on and later for the main meal rib eye steaks with caremalised onion rings, sliced mushroom gravy and baked jacket potatoes with sour cream and chives....of course there will be several kinds of salad on hand but I will be too full by then lol

Looking forward to a great day with family and friends and the weather prediction is 29°C and sunny

 

http://rs459.pbsrc.com/albums/qq319/mary24_84/Aussie.jpg?w=280&h=210&fit=crop
Smoker will be fired-up at 8am, beer will flow by 12.....oi, oi, oi

 

Don't talk to me tomorrow!

 

Ship me off some of the left over food. Never eaten Aussie cuisine.

 

There is usually not too much left over because when word gets out you end up having a few more people than expected dropping in........ it is a slow process needing a good supply of beer and plenty of chatting.......you end up cooking two or three different lots with a couple of hours in between each lot so then you have time to play cricket or kick a footy or just drink more beer. The first lot is usually prawns, lamb cutlets, sausages and chicken sticks or marinated chicken wings........easy stuff you just snack on to get prepared for the main meal which is usually large rib eye or porterhouse steaks or maybe spare ribs or chicken marylands or whole fish and these are eaten with salads and vegies........ yum
This is a typical BBQ cooker although my one also has a separate wok burner to the far left (out of picture) which is handy for steamed vegies or keeping gravy hot.
This one is cooking a big piece of rump steak, two kinds of sausages some forequarter lamb chops, and some marinated lamb loin chops.
https://www.familycapers.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/BBQ.jpg

 

They work really well as you can use them to cook all sorts of things.......I have even made meatballs with bolognese sauce cooked in the pan and boiled up either fettuccine or spaghetti in a saucepan on the wok burner so we can have pasta cooked outside on the BBQ
If you pull down the hood on the BBQ and then wait until the temperature gauge says about 400°F then I have also used it to cook loaves of savoury topped pull apart bread or even just a plain loaf of crusty bread

 

Enjoy your Australia Day Celebration. Looks like you celebrate the day similar to how we celebrate the 4th of July here in the USA, BBQ, Family, Friends, Fireworks.

 

Wow!!!
I am thirsty and hungry...
Everyone in Australia, enjoy the day!

 

Thanks!

The day was full of events:

A "Ferrython" (annual ferry race) that runs between the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge - they really churned up the water, constant wakes hitting our boat, threw us about on board like drunken sailors!
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2Salute to Australia: set up at the base of the Northern Pylon of Sydney's Harbour Bridgethe base of the Harbour Bridge's northern pylon before the 21 Gun Salute:
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White sheeted sail boats then lined up and performed a water ballet sailing to and fro while zigzagging their way, passing by the northern Bridge pylon before the 21 Gun Salute:
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All at the ready, the twenty-one gun salute begins – The Australian Army, Royal Australian Navy and Royal Australian Air Force pay tribute to our nation:
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Then there’s the Australia Day flyover by three jet planes hot rod above us, the sound of their jets reverberating deep in our chests. Red Berets parachute by the Harbour Bridge; and Qantas’ white jumbo for each Australia Day, comes to circle low above us...then after a final low sweep as though you could caress its underbelly, it flys away.
As a final salute, two helicopters circle above the Harbour Bridge flying our flags, while a blast of Australia Fair plays over speakers carrying the melody over the water
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Tribute over, the Australia Day Regatta with over 100 boats racing around the Sydney Harbour:
Tall ships racing: puff of smoke as the leading sailing ship fires "cannon" to discourage advance of its competitor - "The Endeavour" - which retaliated with return fire, then won the race regardless!
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All vessels joined in racing which got rough – again churning up the water – with all types, tall ships, ferries, privately owned and cruise boats vying for first place...In view is Australia's newest and biggest navy ship, HMAS Canberra, which took pride of place in Sydney Harbour as defence force personnel played significant roles during the Australia Day Celebrations (pretty obvious tactical message that we were being protected on our special day!) https://apis.mail.yahoo.com/ws/v3/mailboxes/@.id==VjJ-spOTlXaXK4s7rsnMPBbWTYB7-NPki8YVO4kul0Lc81aGGgqh0BEuRYlsqQxz_3JXLMwb7-6eMdE3yVCBf4uaAQ/messages/@.id==AKbWyQoAAFRHWmxWowwtMAKeEGc/content/parts/@.id==10/thumbnail?appId=YahooMailNeo&downloadWhenThumbnailFails=true&pid=10
With so much commotion about, we were really getting rocked around with the turbulence of the wakes from surrounding vessels as we "competed" in our catamarine:
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After all that excitement, we settled down to afternoon tea and a dessert of Aussie Pavlova while cruising back to Pyrmont Bay:
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On landing, we went on board the Australian Wild Oats sailing boat docked at the adjoining dock, which won the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Races December 2017 – fascinating tour and what a beautiful yacht - we had it moored at our Spit Bridge Yacht Club (down from where I live) for a few weeks following the December races!
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Time for a breather for the next round – the Fireworks at night!
Relaxed around Darling Harbour before taking a ferry to Circular Quay to find a spot for the "Live At The Quay" celebrations, which started at 6:30pm. These were presented from two areas –
One on a floating platform with an enormous screen to show what is being televised at both areas.
The other was on a concert platform based at the bottom of the steps of the Opera House. It was an extraordinary, maritime, musical and dance extravaganza, with interviews of the Australians of the Year, the inaugural Sydney Cove Cup race, a sunset ceremony featuring our indigenous Koomurri dancers and special performance by some of our Australian musical greats.
Security was tight, heavy with police visibility, area well supervised, areas were set up specially for the event were grid locked with gates, and access closed off around 7:30pm all around Sydney Cove shoreline. Got a spot in a building overlooking Circular Quay, Sydney Cove right past Sydney Harbour Bridge (but not around the corner to the Opera House - but that didn't matter because the big screen showed us what was happening at the concert there.
I’ll send photos of this later event in a separate email!
Ciao

 

Ooops! ran out of time to edit for MG - anyway - you got to see more than I intended.

Here are some shots of the evening's events:
The show on the double screen in the middle of the water at Circular Quay:
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The concerts timing at each site alternated so the crowd could watch everything that was happening on the big screen at each instance.
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Fireworks:
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Harbour Bridge in background...
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The Bridge disappeats from view but you can just make out the lights of Luna Park at bottom right:
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The fireworks continued for 15 minutes - each new display outdoing the previous
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Fun day.

 

Well, Joffa 's given you the meal side of things, here's the fun food - the sweets - my favourites:

Lammington cake (squares of sponge cake, dipped in chocolate and rolled in desicated coconut):


Pavlova - made from egg white and baked then topped with fresh whipped cream and fruit:


Enjoy!

Cheers

LS

 

Looks amazingly delicious!!!!

 

Glad to see that you aussies had a terrific time and enjoyed all of the great food and activities! Sounds like Joffa could be a food writer in the way he describes the menus.

 

I could be a food writer but I'd rather be a food taster.