Happy New Holland Day, cobbers!
Tuesday 25 January 2022 12:53 PM
AN AUSTRALIA DAY EVE REFLECTION
Terra Australis. The Great South Land. Claimed for King George. But how different it may have been.
Imagine if La Perouse - who moseyed his frigates into Sydney Harbour for a pally chat with Arthur Phillip before choofing off - had hoisted the tricolour for King Louis...
Or indeed, had Dirk Hartog and his dutchy mates with their double vowels and sore throats done a bit more than bang a pewter plate into a gumtree over where the sandgropers be, a century earlier than Cook, Philip, or Captain Frenchy ...
Well what then? Why, we could be THE LAND OF THE CLOGS AND THE FROGS. Or otherwise New South Belgium. Quite salutary really. We could have been a nation ignorant of cricket ball tampering and bursting with soccer hooligans.
Happy New Holland Day, cobbers!