Why a week out from heading overseas are we sitting at 5:30 am on a Virgin Australia B737 heading to Sydney on Australia day? Late last year, Amy, a friend from Texas, let us know that she and her son would be in Australia in late January and how great it would be to catch up. We had not seen Amy for over 10 years since we were in Houston and Amy generously lent her art gallery to hold an Australian Aboriginal Art Exhibition for Anne’s company Cicada Trading Art Gallery. Sadly our paths had not crossed since so of course we are heading to Sydney to meet with Amy and Sam.

Australia Day, a national public holiday since 1994, is celebrated each year on the 26th of January. On 26th of January 1788, the First Fleet arrived in Sydney harbour and Captain Arthur Philips landed at Sydney Cove and raised the Union Jack to claim the land for Great Britain. Over the following years, these early immigrants and those who followed spread across the land.

Australia Day has a historical significance as it commemorates the establishment of British sovereignty, but is protested as “Invasion Day” by many, who call for a date change due to the colonization, violence, and loss of sovereignty it represents for Indigenous Australians. A national day should be celebrated as a national public holiday, promoting reflection on all Australian history, diversity, and achievements and  celebrating shared identity and national solidarity. As long as our National Day is linked to the start of British sovereignty or the invasion of Aboriginal land, it cannot be celebrated by all as it marks the start of colonial violence and dispossession of land. 

We, like many others before us, are immigrants to this great land. We both feel grateful and privileged to have been able to live here for the last 37 years, albeit on and off! Australia is home. Thanks to Anne’s Aboriginal family, we better understand their deep connection to their land. So we will continue to celebrate Australia as a proud Australians, but with reflection and sadness the day is linked to so much hurt and cruelty and will continue to hope the date gets changed. 

Descending into Sydney we get a view of the harbour and what looks like rain. Yours truly did not check the weather as he has no waterproof gear! After dropping our bags at our hotel we make our way through the Sydney CBD recalling our times when we both worked in Sydney commuting each week from Brisbane.

We meet Amy and Sam at their hotel. Great that they have organised a harbour tour for 10:30 and we wander down with the growing throngs of people heading for Sydney Cove. Through an Australia day only security bag check and we are ready to go on the harbour.

Most of the notable festivities for Australia Day in Sydney are focused on the harbour. Those of you who have been lucky enough to visit Sydney will be aware of how central the harbour is to the city. We have been fortunate years ago to spend a couple of New Year’s Eves on the harbour with our friend Don Roberts on his WW2 Australian Navy tender. We met Don on a trip to Antarctica in 1997 where we, with others, named a mountain after him when we were part of a group making the first accent of what was then an unclimbed and unnamed peak, giving us naming rights but that is another story. Today will be a first, not only for Australia Day but daytime on the harbour.

Our boat called Spectre with Captain James was waiting for us at the Commissioner’s steps, which is situated in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. We navigate our way around the temporary barriers for Australia day crowds onto Spectre and following the safety briefing, Captain James opens-up the twin 300 Mercury outboards push us swiftly out passed the Opera house waving to the crowds ashore, who responded in kind – not sure who waved first but we all happily waved.

Out towards Garden Island, the eastern base of the Royal Australian Navy. As we approach, we see HMAS Canberra, a helicopter landing ship slowly making her way towards the centre of the harbour to be part of the festivities. At one point we are warned off by a loud finger whistle for getting to close by a small military boat, probably afraid we will scratch the paint. Around Fort Denison lighthouse, a small island that was shelled by the US Navy during the Japanese midget submarine attack in WW2. The island could look like a submarine at night.

The festivities mean that we need to be east of the harbour bridge by 11:30. Sitting just off the water police jetskis, we get to witness an RAAF F35 flyby, including a barrel roll right above us, then a 21 gun salute. Following the 21 gun salute, we witness an annual race between four Sydney harbour ferries. This annual event starts between the Sydney Harbour bridge and the Opera house out round Fort Denison island for two laps. Surprisingly they are fast, I understand they can do 25 knots. Before you think about a wager on the 2027 race, I have it from an inside source that the winner is known in advance, probably to avoid having four damaged or, worse still, sunk ferries when normal service resumes the following day.

After a rest from the morning and lunch exertions, we meet for dinner at 6 Head restaurant in the Rocks giving us a front row seat to the light and sound show panorama that fills the sky from the Sydney Harbour bridge past the Opera House to the harbour foreshore. An amazing combination of lights, fireworks and drones paint the sky with colour and sound. Four hundred drones take to the sky rising up from a pad right in front of us. The sound of 400 hundred drones slowly rising right in front of us is eery. The precision is amazing, although the back of my mind I am thinking of how they can be used for nefarious purposes, what if they had my image and were after me? Like so many things they can be used for good and bad.

Thank you Amy for suggesting we come to Sydney and hosting us for Australia day, we got to meet Sam and had a wonderful day, as Anne says “When was the last time you did something for the first time?”, with the proviso “that you want to”.

Tuesday in Sydney is spent catching up with old friends, first in town, then lunch at Mosman. Nice to spend time with them. Now back to Brisbane to pack for next week.

– Anthony & Anne