Australia Day

Today Tonight and A Current Affair

3 February 2012 Moving To Australia

What does it mean to be Australian? Here, in Australia, we have a couple of current affairs programmes. One is called Today Tonight and the other is simply called A Current Affair. They are both on every weekday evening after the news at 6.30 PM. One is on Channel 7 and the other on Channel [...]

Becoming an Australian Citizen

25 January 2012 Moving To Australia

Tomorrow is Australia Day. I won’t explain what that is, I’ll assume you’ve read my post about Australia Day from three years ago. Or perhaps you’ve read about the Australia Day party I went to a couple of years back. Last year, almost all Australia Day parties became charity events, raising money for those affected [...]

New Rules for Migrants in Australia?

11 January 2012 Life in Australia

As you know, I recently received a letter from Immigration Minister Chris Bowen informing me that my application for Australian citizenship had been approved. He also said I would soon receive an invitation from his department about my Australian citizenship ceremony. And I have. My, or rather our ceremony will take place on Australia Day, [...]

The Impact of the Floods in Australia

26 January 2011 Life in Australia

Today is Australia day. Last year I joked whether Australia Day would go ahead because of the tragic events surrounding Doug the baby koala. That’s all we had going on back then! That story was BIG news! But this year the news doesn’t mention koala’s much and we have a real tragedy to recover from [...]

Australian Schools: Helping You To Choose.

29 January 2010 Moving To Australia

As I mentioned in my most recent post, which was about our Australia Day celebrations, the Wednesday following Australia Day saw all of our school kids returning after the long summer holidays. First -the back to school news. How was Elizabeth’s first day at REAL school? As you probably know, she’s been at real school [...]

The Australia Day Party Is On!

27 January 2010 Entertainment Australia

I mentioned on Monday that I’d been invited to an Australia Day party but wasn’t sure whether it would go ahead in view of the tragic events surrounding poor Doug the koala. But with true Australian spirit, we pressed on and we partied! But first, what is Australia Day? Fortunately, I explained a bit about [...]

In Memory of Doug, the Baby Koala: Nov 2009 – Jan 2010

25 January 2010 Australia's Bad Things

It’s been a tough weekend here in Australia. On Friday, just a couple of hours after I posted my roundup of the news, Doug the baby koala passed away. Tomorrow is Australia Day here, a national holiday and a day of celebration. In light of poor Doug, it will be a true test of this [...]

Australia – A Nation of Immigrants

7 April 2009 Australia vs UK

Those are not my words, I saw them on a TV advert. I can’t even remember what the programme or product was, but I knew how true those words were as soon as I saw them. After all, I’m one! I have no wish to get into the history of Australia here, there are plenty [...]