Australia Day

Australia Day, celebrated annually on 26th January, is the official National day of Australia, commemorating the establishment of the first European settlement on the continent of Australia. The date is that of the foundation of a British penal colony at Sydney Cove on Port Jackson, New South Wales, by Captain Arthur Phillip (26th January 1788), who was to become the first Governor.

It is BIG in Perth. People drive around the streets shouting out the windows, honking horns and waving Australian flags. A bit fanatical really. I tried to think of an event back home to compare and the closest I can think of is New Year and the Bells in Scotland.


Perth has one of the best firework displays in Australia. We were warned about trying to drive near to the event and walking was out of the question so we watched from the confines of the garden, some 9km from the event (as the crow flies). I managed to take some reasonable photos considering the distance and the use of a fairly basic digital camera. In order to give you an idea of the scale I have added arrows in the first (twilight shot) and second fireworks shot indicating points on buildings with noticable illuminated signs, which are easily recognisable in the dark. The large building on the left is the Raffles hotel and Yuppie apartment block. The buildings in the distance are all within the city central business district. The fireworks were set off on the Northern foreshore of the Swan River, some 500m from the CBD buildings.
The display was so popular that despite the distance from the event our street was lined with cars and people were camping and sat on deck chairs along the banks of the river in front of our house.