Today is Australia Day, a big day of celebration down under. If I'm not mistaken, it marks the anniversary of Australia's founding as a penal colony at Botany Bay. Since Australia is a commonwealth of the British Empire and never demanded independence from England, they remain part of a group of nations that have Queen Elizabeth II as the official "head of state", just as she is for Canada, New Zealand, Gibraltar, Fiji and the United Kingdom (and a few other places I can't recall off hand).
A few years back, there was talk about Australia becoming a republic, but many Australians were apparently worried that they'd become more like the USA. Since I'm not an Australian, I have no idea on the ins and outs of being a republic versus remaining part of the British commonwealth. One thing I'm adamant about, though...they have one of the coolest looking flags and I'd hate to see it changed (unless a new flag featured the shape of the continent on the flag--out of all the countries and continents, Australia has the coolest looking shape).
In honour of this country that remains at the top of my list of countries I hope to see before I transpire to the spiritual realm, I am featuring two music videos by Australian rock groups that pay tribute to their nation.
The first music video is Midnight Oil's beautiful tribute to their native land. The song is "One Country" from their 1990 album Blue Sky Mining. The video shows the beauty and diversity that is Australia and it makes such a great tourist advertisement.
The second music video is Icehouse's "Great Southern Land", which I believe should be the official rock anthem of Australia. This video also shows the beauty of the land down under. It's from the 1980s Australian hit film Young Einstein. You can tell just how 80s this video is by the lead singer's horribly bad mullet. Gawd, I can't believe that I actually thought mullets looked cool back in 1987. I'm so glad I never got one!
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