Australia Day comes round again, with the same debates about the significance of 26 Jan. 1788. I wrote about this fateful summer in my latest book. The relevant part is here, if you care to read a narrative, told in reverse, of the three key groups meeting each other then (the Yiyura, the French, and the British). Somewhat contradictorily, I don’t think the eighteenth century should figure at all in the day that Australia chooses to celebrate its best qualities. This six-page excerpt may help to explain why…
Kate Fullagar 