Beer pong to cockapoo, Aussies defy Mackellar’s Country heat, floods to celebrate
From beer pong at Bondi Beach to a clean-up Christmas in Cairns’s cyclone zone, Australians celebrated far and wide on a day that captured the essence of Dorothea Mackellar’s renowned poem, My Country.
From beer pong at Bondi Beach to a clean-up Christmas in Cairns’s cyclone zone, Australians celebrated far and wide, with family and friends, on a day that captured the essence of Dorothea Mackellar’s renowned poem, My Country.
The land of “droughts and flooding rains” delivered a Christmas Day with everything from a 45C scorcher in Western Australia’s Pilbara to a dreary wet summer’s day in Melbourne that struggled to reach 20C, as inland storms pounded two states, including a hailstorm in the NSW tourist town of Orange.
There was nowhere hotter in Australia on Monday than Marble Bar. Indigenous families from the community of Gooda Binya, 3km out of town, brought ice from the local caravan park to put in a newly erected kids’ pool.
Marble Bar caravan park manager Kath Nation and partner Neil Munro decided to spend Christmas Day prospecting. They set out at 5am with their dog, Buddy. By 10am, with one gold nugget weighing 0.01 grams, they had a picnic and drank a couple of Miller beers each before deciding to go home.
“It was getting too hot,” Ms Nation said.
On the other side of the country, in North Sydney, Zara Alexander’s parents felt fortunate as they watched her open gifts, well aware of the effect the cost-of-living crisis was having on families across the country. Under the Christmas tree, labelled for Zara from Santa, was Skye the helicopter pilot dog from Paw Patrol, a smart cockapoo coveted by four-year-olds.
Zara also unwrapped red ballet shoes and a music box.
“I guess we’re not sort of feeling the financial troubles like others are, so we feel very fortunate for that,” dad Todd Alexander said.
Anthony Albanese’s Christmas message acknowledged Monday would be a welcome pause for many.
“For so many Australians, this is a chance to rest,” Mr Albanese said on Sunday. “To spend time with our family, catch up with friends, and to cherish the memories of those no longer with us.”
Mr Albanese told 2GB on Monday that he had visited the grave of his mother, Maryanne, at Rookwood Cemetery on Christmas morning. He then went to Exodus, a charity in Sydney’s inner west, to serve meals. He received some vinyl records, a telescope and a Cold Chisel box set for Christmas and he gave his partner Jodie Haydon a jewellery gift.
He thanked Australians who worked on Monday.
“In particular, our emergency personnel and Australian Defence Force members, whether here or overseas, our medical workers and our hospitality (workers) and those who give up for others through charities,” Mr Albanese said. “I know many Australians are doing it tough at the moment, in particular those in far north Queensland, dealing with the aftermath of the floods.
“To them, I say you are all in our thoughts. May better times be ahead.”
In far north Queensland, which was battered by ex-tropical cyclone Jasper a week ago, families came together to celebrate at a series of community-organised Christmas lunches for those whose lives were thrown into turmoil and homes damaged.
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