Australia Day 2007
It is hard to imagine in 2007, that life in Sydney could be one of privation.
But in 1788:
". . .the first white Australian settlers were so conspicuously unfit for survival in the new land that they lived on the edge of starvation in the midst of what seemed like natural abundance to the Aborigines. They had practically no idea what they could eat or how to get it. Most of the First Fleet convicts had not moved ten miles from their place of birth and had never seen the sea before they were clapped in irons and thrust on the transports." Robert Hughes - The Fatal Shore
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PS. The image above - was taken a few years ago, at Manly - a short ferry ride away from the Sydney CBD. Arthur Phillip the first Governor of colony wrote of the native Iora tribe "Their confidence and manly behaviour, made me give the name of Manly Cove to this place"
PSS. This is a wine blog, so a piece of grape trivia: The First Fleet, together with its human cargo carried grape vine cuttings collected en route at Rio de Janiero and the Cape of Good Hope. The first vines were planted at Farm Cove, though initially for fresh fruit rather than wine production.
2 comments:
I just recovered from celebrating St. Vincent's Day (patron saint of wine makers) on Wednesday, Thursday was a Robert Burns' Night dinner with wine and good whisky. Now I open your blog and find out today is Australia Day. Hmmm....maybe a Penfolds St Henri this evening?
Great blog by the way. Thoroughly enjoy it.
Dan,
Do it for Australia!
Of course the French came close, indeed I think a French ship and crew passed the First Fleet as it come in to Sydney Harbour! So a French wine would also seem appropriate!
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