Have a happy Australia Day! Though I now know it's not the same as our 4th of July, have a beer for us. One of the good Australian beers.

Thanks mate! Have a happy and safe Australia Day weekend everyone!

I'll most likely spend the day in town taking photos. There is a 21 gun salute around the corner from Mrs Macquarie's Chair, F/A18 fly bys, the annual harbour ferry race that raises money for charitable causes and lots of people waving the Australian Flag.

For tea tomorrow night I'll most likely fire up the barbeque and stuff my face with a mixed grille.

My Kriesler 11-7 will probably get warmed up for a night on 2CH.

We live in the sixth largest country in the world by land area and have an abundance of natural resources and engineering talent, yet the country is the most sparsley populated. This does indeed make Australia the lucky country and that is something we should be truly thankful for.

We live in the sixth largest country in the world by land area and have an abundance of natural resources and engineering talent, yet the country is the most sparsley populated. This does indeed make Australia the lucky country and that is something we should be truly thankful for.

IMHO, the fact that this huge island continent is one country is the greatest thing it has going for it. Imagine what we'd have now if each of the former colonies were founded and settled by different nations. Europe down under. I shudder to think.

It almost happened too. Last year I was looking at some political maps of Australia drawn back in the 1770's just after Captain Cook left his calling card.

A line was drawn right down the middle with the left half known as New Holland and the right as New South Wales. It was obviously a British map though probably a case of the British pondering on the idea that the mighty Royal Navy might fall short on resources to claim the whole continent.

I think the biggest problem for the Dutch, and indeed the Spanish, Portuguese, French and Russians is that Britain simply had much more money available to spend on colonisation.

Despite this, the paranoia that the Royal Navy was known for continued well after settlement in Sydney and numerous gun batteries still survive in part or full at Fort Denison, Bare Island and under the southern approaches to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I think guns still survive at Brighton Beach and South Head too. All these were installed at various times to defend Sydney against Russian and French invasions which really never looked like happening.

Over in the West, there's evidence that the Dutch had some sort of mini colony set up for a brief time by Dirk Hartog in or close to 1616.