I was a bit worried I'd missed Oz day but according to my iThing it is still Wednesday in Perth so I've just got in under the wire. But all is not happy in the land of the bouncy 'roo and shrimp loaded barbie, for us poms are in the dog house again.
Not content with taking the ashes home we've got our grubby mits on the first map to call the land down under "Australia".
It was so named in the drawing (above) by Captain Matthew Flinders who circumnavigated the continent back in 1801-3. He made it while imprisoned for six years by the dastardly French in Mauritius and now it rests unseen within the UK Hydrographic Office in Taunton.
Strewth!
Hence this campaign to bring the map home.
Anyhow put away those wee drams of whisky, get yourself a cold tinny and raise it the lucky country!
7 comments:
I hope David Cameron charges the Ozzies a hefty price for sending this map to Australia. America paid $10 million for the Waldseemüller map which is of similar significance. Every little helps in the age of austerity.
It would be a good time to sell: the pound is right down compared to the Au$ so he'd get a lot more ££ in exchange
So the good folks of Oz are worried they need to produce a birth certificate to establish their origins?
Our 'birthers' might be willing to help the Aussies in this fight.
Their single-minded enthusiasm is impressive, but sometimes they don't spell very well.
Well Fox New's owner comes from Oz so maybe he at least would appreciate a certificate like that ;)
What a load of old cobblers. The people ranting about wanting their map "back" have got their history mixed up. This map cannot be "returned" to Australia because it never belonged to Australia in the first place. It was drawn by a proud son of Lincolnshire, England. If the map deserves to be "returned" anywhere it should be returned to Lincolnshire.
And as for comparing it to the Elgin marbles, that's as crazy as saying that the Founding Fathers of the USA "worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States."
I like these political posts. Can we have more please.
No. Please.
And I guess Jimmy Buffett didn't have a Happy Australia Day, did he?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTQYVC0OHYs
Watch out for the wave that kills you, Jimmy.
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