I’m a little late with my Australia Day post, owing to the fact that I’ve just returned from Melbourne on a four day holiday. Many thanks to the incredible Annie Seaton for putting this opportunity together and my apologies again for my tardiness.
The Hotel Windsor, known back in 1899 as The Grand Hotel
As it so happens where we stayed in Melbourne, the Hotel Windsor on Spring Street has a tangible link to the history of the country. Built as the city’s premier destination in 1883 as The Grand Hotel, its location opposite Melbourne’s Parliament House was very convenient for late night sittings to determine the final clauses that would become our nation’s constitution.
The magnificent Exhibition Building in Melbourne, site of Australia’s federal Parliament for the first decade of the new nation’s life
Until the capital of Canberra was established in 1913 Melbourne’s Exhibition Centre was the location for the first decade and a bit of our combined nation’s history.
Canberra is one of the few ‘created capitals’, that is cities that were especially designed and built to be a national capital, rather than the most prominent trading town earning that honour, such as Paris or London. Other created capitals which come to mind are Washington DC and Brasilia, the new capital of Brazil.
Celebrating the wonder of Australia, its natural beauty, its First Peoples, all the migrants who came afterwards, our can-do spirit and inventiveness is Australia Day, held on the 26th of January to mark the landing of the First Fleet of English convicts to arrive in Port Phillip Bay in 1788. If you’d like a historical romance which looks at Australia’s early history, then I highly recommend Beyond Innocence by fellow Queenslander, Joanna Lloyd.
All present and incorrect. T-shirts saying Australia was established in 1788. It wasn’t. It was established in 1901.
Yet we’re not without our detractors, just in the past week two major retailers have pulled Australia Day T-shirts for having the temerity to say Australia: Established 1788.
And quite right too – Australia as a nation wasn’t established until January 1 1901 – the first day of the 20th century.
Prior to this date, the continent was divided into six of self-governing British colonies and before that, Terra Australis was occupied by between 500 and 700 Aboriginal nation groups.
Australia as a nation did not exist prior to Federation.
Please do go and visit some other amazing Australian authors and support them with sales of their books:
Don’t forget to call in every day and visit the blogs, leave a comment, enter the raffle copter for the fabulous gift basket.
$100 and 26 e-books (some print) from our generous authors
drawn Australia Day
| January | 1 | Monique McDonnell |
| January | 2 | Sara Hantz |
| January | 3 | Annie Seaton |
| January | 4 | Imogene Nix |
| January | 5 | Caitlyn Nicholas |
| January | 6 | Tima Maria Lacoba |
| January | 7 | Nicole Flockton |
| January | 8 | Wendy L. Curtis |
| January | 10 | Susan Horsnell |
| January | 11 | Susanne Bellamy |
| January | 12 | J’aimee Brooker |
| January | 13 | Victoria Purman |
| January | 14 | Ann B Harrison |
| January | 15 | Cate Ellink
and |
| January | 16 | Jenny Schwartz |
| January | 17 | Donna Gallagher |
| January | 18 | Lily Malone |
| January | 19 | Tea Cooper |
| January | 20 | Fiona McArthur |
| January | 21 | Max Henry |
| January | 22 | Jennie Jones |
| January | 23 | Alison Stuart |
| January | 24 | Eve Rabi |
| January | 25 | Kendall Talbot |
| January | 26 | Annie Seaton-Prize draw |
Annie Seaton
http://annieseatonromance.com