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Australia marks union anniversary
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Posted on Jan 03 2001
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) – A dawn ceremony in Australia’s desert heartland on Monday opened festivities marking the 100th anniversary of the day Australia’s provinces united as one country.
Seven men from the Arrernte tribe beat sticks in a sand bed of the dry Todd River in the central city of Alice Springs soon after dawn in a symbolic message to all Australians to join the party.
Later Monday, Prime Minister John Howard and Governor General William Deane – the British queen’s representative in government – joined state leaders in recreating the Jan. 1, 1901 ceremony that marked federation.
Howard called the centenary an opportunity to reflect on the country’s history.
“The Australian achievement of the last 100 years has been massive, by any standard,” Howard told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
“We’ve gone through depression, we’ve gone through enormous changes of mass migration, we’ve gone through the challenges of modernization and globalization – and yet we do remain a very cohesive society,” he said. “That, I believe, is our crowning achievement.”
