It's Australia Day and many of our Cuties have wished us well. Thank you for your good wishes. Right now our country is experiencing all of the natural disasters described in the poem, 'My Country', but right here right now, in Mount Gambier, a more perfect day could not be wished for. Today, my place must surely be the jewel in the crown we call Australia.

You might wonder why the Aussies rally in a spirit of larrikanism, having fun in their own peculiar way. Over the years I, too, have pondered this thought many times. Dorothea Mackellar, an English immigrant, wrote a poem for her family back in England that beautifully describes the magnetism this land has for its people.

She called her adopted country 'a wilful, lavish land' and it is; and over the decades, and now centuries, we Australians have learnt to not take ourselves too seriously but to love this fickle, generous country that we are privileged to inhabit with a fierce loyalty that comes from coping with whatever is thrown our way.

Please enjoy reading 'My Country' by Dorothea Mackellar, often more commonly known as 'I love a sunburnt country'.

http://www.dorotheamackellar.com.au/archive/mycountry.htm