Australia Day 2011

This is my Australia!

My family.
The beach.
The bush.
The heat.
The rain.

Today, January 26th, we celebrate Australia Day - being Australian, no matter where we are from, in all its richness and diversity. We are a nation of many cultures. Of many traditions. We are a nation that comes together in triumph and tragedy in equal measure. We are tough when we need to be, gentle when it counts. We know when to lend a hand and we can laugh at ourselves. We truly do live in . . . "the lucky country".

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

By Dorothea Mackellar

To find out a little bit more about Australia Day, click here.