Re: Australia Day
Rodger Morris (rodger@FISHNET.NET)
Wed, 22 Jan 1997 08:00:58 -0800
At 10:27 PM 1/22/97 +0800, Grant O'Neil wrote:
>For the information of my international friends on this list, this Sunday
>(January 26) is Australia Day. This day comemmorates the date in 1788 when
>the "First Fleet" of settlers (a large proportion of whom were unwilling...
><G>) arrived from England at Botany Bay (Where the city of Sydney is now)
>
The British established Australia as a prison colony after they lost the
use of Georgia as a prison colony in 1781 after the battle of Yorktown
during our revolutionary War of Independence from the English crown.
According to my family oral history, at least one of my ancestors was a
transported Irish prisoner. His "crime" was reportedly that of snaring a
rabbit so as to feed his family. We don't know what happened to the wife
and children he was forced to leave behind.
Thus he became a "Prisoner of His(Her) Majesty" or "Pommie".
As a descendent of an Irish Pommie, I wish all the best for you who are
descendents of Pommies in Australia.
Yours in Scouting,
Rodger
Rodger Morris <rodger@fishnet.net>
Scoutmaster, Troop 852 Wood Badge 416-18
Ventura County Council at Philmont, 1973
Camarillo, California, USA "I used to be a Beaver..."
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City | 
