Australia Day

We have had a very rainy couple of weeks.  After last year's torrential downpours that seemed to happen everyday, all day, for three months, we were starting to think that we would get a dry summer.  Not to be!  We have had slightly more rain this January than we did last year, with at least 168mm on Wednesday.  This kind of weather makes it hard to plan any outdoor activities.

Rainfall in Brisbane, 25 - 29 Jan 2012

It would have been nice to be able to plan something, because on Thursday January 26 we celebrated Australia Day.  Australia Day marks both the anniversary of the signing of the constitution that created the nation of Australia, it also marks the date of the arrival of the "First Fleet", which are the first ships that left England with the intention of settling Australia. 

As most people know, the first fleets into Australia for settlement were full of convicts.  It is even promoted by the ancestry.com.au website, which is giving Australians free access this weekend in order that everyone can find the convict in his or her past.  Don't be fooled by the "convict" part, these were not major criminals.  The really bad guys, murderers, rapists and anyone involved with treason, were put to death.  Most criminals were petty, one-time theives, generally guilty of stealing cloth or food (these were very valuable in the 1700s, so the crimes were still considered serious...it's not like there were factories everywhere churning out denim or loaves of bread!) 

There are some very interesting points about the convicts on the First Fleet.  The sentence was 7 years, but there were no "reveserse transport" ships.  The convicts would need to find their own way back to England!  Many of the convicts had already served their sentences by the time the ships actually left England, but they were stuck on the ships and had no way to get off.  The governor would need to get a letter of "sentence served" from England before the prisoner could be released and, with the mail service being what it was then, the convict was probably better off not getting his (or her) hope up about leaving Australia anytime soon!

But  224 years later here we were, looking for something to do on a rainy Australia Day.  We looked at outdoor activities and decided to take a pass, but didn't want to be stuck indoors all day either.  We ended up doing the obvious thing by going to Piglet Races at the local pub.  These little piggies raced all day, raising money for charity and for the pub, since the heats take place about 1 hour apart (the little piggies need their rest.)  We watched one race, had a drink and left, but we think there were quite a few people calling in a sickie the next day...one of the great Australian traditions!

Tuckered piglets

Australia Day piggies