Wednesday 31 January 2007
Tuesday 30 January 2007
Getting ready for work
Maybe she was also going back to work for the first time in ages and hadn't calculated the morning time?
Monday 29 January 2007
Back to work
Sunday 28 January 2007
Big Strong Men
Saturday 27 January 2007
Friday 26 January 2007
Reconciliation - when? Not on Australia Day 2007.
This is a picture of Sydney Cove, taken from a significant point on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
On 21 January, 1788, Captain Arthur Philip and the First Fleet, a raggle taggle collection of convicts and hardly-better British soldiers, reached Sydney Cove (the water in this picture) to establish a British convict colony.
On 26 January, the British flag was raised at Sydney Cove and the colony officially began.
Captain James Cook had sailed along the coast 18 years earlier, and had stopped in Botany Bay, south of here. Cook saw the entrance to the harbour on May 6, 1770, and named it Port Jackson, after a friend, one of the secretaries of the British Admiralty, George Jackson. He noted that it looked like a good anchorage, but decided to sail on, so he never entered this magnificent harbour. Cook, and his botanist, Joseph Banks, recommended a settlement at Botany Bay, however Philip found it did not possess a reliable fresh water supply, so after anchoring there on 18 January 1788, decided to move on to explore the possiblity of the anchorage at Port Jackson. Philip and the First Fleet arrived here on 21 January, and named it Sydney Cove. There was a stream, the Tank Stream, for water.
On 26 January, 1788, Philip raised the British flag and so founded the colony. That occasion id now commemorated as Australia Day, a public holiday.
That act also signifies the dispossession of the land from its original inhabitants, the Aboriginal people, although that was probably not the original intention.
A doctrine was used in British law, known as terra nullius (empty land) - now overthrown in Australian law. It asserte that the land was empty of people, and thus free for the taking. Cook had thought, because he encountered so few people around the coasts, that the interior must be empty.
In fact living in this very place were the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, Philip was under instructions to be friendly and to treat with them. A subsequent governor (Macarthur) went back to England to get terra nullius invoked, when he wanted to clear Aborigines from land he wanted to expand into.
This has led to more than 2 centuries of injustice towards the Aboriginal people.
At the southern end of the walkway across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, a plaque commemorates the Reconciliation Walk of 28 May 2000. On that say, there seemed like there was enormous hope for reconciliation between Australia's Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, as referred to yesterday. Under the policies of the current federal gocernment, that hope has dimmed - I hope temporarily. Now THAT will be a day to celebrate!!
The plaque reads:
On 28 May 2000, more than 250,000 people walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in support of reconciliation. In the months that followed a million more Australians participated in similar walks throughout the nation. Mari budjari yana. Unveiled on 27 May 2004
Thursday 25 January 2007
Redfern Park. Redfern Speech.
Wednesday 24 January 2007
They're here!
Tuesday 23 January 2007
Lane etiquette
Monday 22 January 2007
The view from the Harbour View pub
Sunday 21 January 2007
Day Night Cricket at the Sydney Cricket Ground
Mexican waves and bouncing huge inflatable beachballs amongst the crowd (and endeavouring to keep them off the field, otherwise they get confiscated) is all part of the cricket scene.
Late today
Saturday 20 January 2007
Circular Quay at night
Friday 19 January 2007
Thursday 18 January 2007
Wednesday 17 January 2007
Budgerigars
Read all about it here
and here's the meaning without words!
Tuesday 16 January 2007
Drought and Mirage
Monday 15 January 2007
Sunday 14 January 2007
Saturday 13 January 2007
The Rabbitohs - A Sydney institution
Rugby League is the main "football" style game played in Sydney.
The South Sydney "Rabbitohs"*, aka "the Bunnies" and "Souths" are a Sydney rugby league team, with a proud history in the working class area of Redfern. (Note the older style terrace houses, and public housing blocks in the background). Over the years Souths have had various ups and downs, including winning more premiershipsthan any other team (the 1950s, 60s and 70s were their best years), and being dropped from the competition in 2000, after financial problems saw them lose some of their best players, and the Rugby League wanting to cut teams from the competition. Rabbitohs supporters are diehards, however, and with great popular support they came out fighting, went to court, and won re-admission in 2002.
Actor Russell Crowe has been a fervent supporter, and in 2006, he and a business partner, Peter Holmes a Court, bought a 75% share of the team, gioving them effective management contol.
Now their former home ground at Redfern Oval, in Redfern Park, is being re-developed by Sydney City Council as a state-of-the-art training ground. When I went past today, the old seats, from the now demolished stands were piled up, presumably awaiting removal.
The Rabbbitohs colours are red and green, hence the colour of the seats.
* How did "The Rabbitohs" get their name?
According to Wikipedia:
One version of how the club got the "Rabbitohs" nickname comes from their rugby union days at the turn of the 20th century. In those hard times, players wearing their cardinal red and myrtle green football jumpers, earned some extra money on Saturday mornings by hawking rabbits around the district with the traditional cry of "Rabbitoh!" echoing through the narrow streets. As they made a sale, they would sling the bunny from their shoulder and skin it on the spot, inevitably accumulating some of the fur and blood on their jerseys as they did so. When they played in those blood stained jumpers that afternoon, opponents from wealthier rugby clubs did not always appreciate the aroma and would mockingly repeat the 'Rabbitoh!' cry.
Another version relates that the Rabbitoh name was a derogatory reference by opposing teams to South's home ground being littered with "rabbit 'oles". In those early days Redfern Oval was then known as Nathan's Cow Paddock.
Friday 12 January 2007
Sydney in January is very slow
I love January - the long summer holidays, and the totally languid feel. February is a bit more fraught because everyone is back into the full swing of things at school and work, and Sydney usually experiences its most humid weather. There's also lots on around town in January - Sydney Festival events.
Thursday 11 January 2007
For Kris in Szentes, in Hungary
Wednesday 10 January 2007
Burial site
Tuesday 9 January 2007
Monday 8 January 2007
Sunday 7 January 2007
Bluebottle
Saturday 6 January 2007
Friday 5 January 2007
Sunrise over Jimmy's Island, Rosedale
Thursday 4 January 2007
Wednesday 3 January 2007
Early morning surfer, cloudy morning, Broulee
Tuesday 2 January 2007
Gang-Gang Cockatoo
Monday 1 January 2007
Happy 2007!!!
You can read all about Kevin here.
Many of the Daily Photo family are celebrating their "Best of 2006" today. Follow the links to see the Best of City Daily Photos in the eyes of the creators.
Porto (Portugal) -Albuquerque, NM (USA) -St. Paul, (USA) Kate -Greenville,SC (USA) -Stayton, OR (USA) -Szentes (Hungary) -Hyde (UK) -London (UK) -Dubai (UAE) -Buenos Aires (Argentina) -Shanghai (China) -Nelson (New Zealand) -Twin Cities, MN (USA) -Joplin MO (USA) -Stavanger (Norway) -Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) -Not Strictly Seattle, WA (USA) -Jakarta (Indonesia) -Auckland (New Zealand) -Sharon, CT (USA) -Evry (France) -(Aust) John -Newcastle upon Tyne (England) -Paris (France) -Bandung (Indonesia) -Brussels (Belgium) -Minneapolis MN (USA) -Aliso Viejo, CA (USA) -Seattle, WA (USA) -Budapest (Hungary) -Singapore by Zannnie (Singapore) -Tenerife (Spain) -Santa Clara, CA (USA) -Houston, TX (USA) -Sydney by Nathalie (Aust) -San Diego, CA (USA) -Vancouver, BC (Canada) -Singapore by KeropokMan (Singapore) -East Lansing, MI (USA) -Sydney by Sally (Australia) -Tucson, AZ (USA) -Nottingham (UK) -Sequim, by Norma -Hong Kong -Vantaa (Finland) -Kyoto (Japan) -Tokyo (Japan) -Santiago (Chile) -