Excerpts from an address by Vice Admiral Chris Ritchie, Chair of Commemoration Council to A.O.T.M. (Australia On The Map) Annual General Meeting, held, 24 NOV 2005, National Library Of Australia (Full speech, click here.)
We all acknowledge the unrecorded history of the arrival of the indiginous population but there is a curious gap in our awareness,or at least our recognition, of more recent events.
Therein lies the reason for the themes that AOTM 1606-2006 would like to embed in the nation's awareness in 2006. They are:
- Firstly we have 400 years of recorded history, not 235.
- Secondly, those earliest contacts and writings began the process of unveiling Australia to the world and were no doubt of influence on the later exploration that led to European settlement.
- Thirdly, we like to think of ourselves as a successfully multicultural society. We should therefore take great pride in the fact that our earliest recorded history is rich in its multicultural diversity. The ships sailed under Dutch, Spanish, English and French flags but many more were the nationalities of those who manned the ships and first saw and told of their contact with Australia.
|
|
The first Chief of Naval Staff in Australia, Vice Admiral Sir William Creswell, argued that Australia's future was that of a maritime nation.
He did so at a time when the ability of the male population to shoot and ride a horse was the apogee of Australian Defence Planning.
He declared that the defence of a frontier state should be in the hands of frontiersmen. " In Australia" he said, " our seamen are our frontiersmen".
|
|
So what? Well, whilst they were perhaps not exactly the frontiersmen envisaged by Creswell, the mariners and merchants that AOTM recognises and celebrates were very much in the frontline of the discovery and awareness of Australia that led to European settlement.
In acknowledging them and their contribution to our current place in the world and the benefits we thus enjoy, I would hope that we can add a little to a national belief in the importance of our maritime heritage and our maritime future. To redress that imbalance between the bush and the briney in our national character.
|
Inpakken en wegwezen.........
|
AUSTRALIA – Republic or US Colony? A new book about the proposed new Republic in Australia has come on to the market through the services of Lulu, the world's fastest-growing provider of print-on-demand books, operating from Canada. The book presents a challenge to the prevailing orthodoxies of political thinking in Australia.
The book is divided in three distinct parts: In Part A a number of current issues are discussed in the context of the lead-up to the 2004 election, the election itself and its aftermath.The election is presented as a potential watershed in Australian Government and politics.
|
Serious problems with the system are drawn out to provide a case for renewal in a new Republic.
In Part B the various aspects of the Head of State in a Republic are highlighted on the basis of a comparative approach. Fifteen modern Republics are examined for that purpose. This takes the dialogue far away from the traditional introverted kind of political discourse Australian students of politics just cannot get excited about.
In Part C the much wider and more important questions “What Kind of a Republic?” and “How to achieve it?” are tackled.
|
