Christmas in summer, New Year’s Eve in Sydney

Well it wasn’t quite a barbie on the beach: we still felt it wouldn’t be Christmas without roast turkey and all the trim, but it was nice to spend Christmas afternoon relaxing in the sunshine. In some ways Australian Christmas is quite similar to British ones, with parties and carol services. But it’s also the summer holiday, so everything seems to close down for several weeks, and many people head out of Canberra for the coast. It means the year has a quite different shape from that in the UK, with the two main holidays both coming at the same time. In Britain we tend to have two peaks to look forward to – Christmas in December, and summer holidays in August.

We were up in Sydney for the New Year. It must be one of the most spectacular locations in the world to mark the occasion. The 12 minute firework display in the harbour, with its iconic bridge and Opera House was stunning.  Apparently it cost over $6million dollars to stage, but I’m sure the millions of happy revellers felt it was money well spent, and no doubt the event generated many times that in revenue for the local economy. Sydney seemed full of British tourists escaping for a bit of winter sunshine. This is also the season when natural disasters tend to occur in Australia, so our consular team were geared up to respond to any emergencies over the holiday, though fortunately there were no major incidents.

As my parents were visiting, we took the opportunity to look up a distant Australian branch of the family. My step Grandfather’s brother emigrated to Australia from Wales in the very early years of the last century with a couple of shillings in his pocket. He worked as a hand on a cattle station, then a sugar cane plantation, and went back to Europe to fight in the First World War, before making a career in the timber industry in Queensland. We had a really enjoyable lunch with his son, and three grandchildren and their partners – all successful professionals of around my age. Over the last century, the family had lived the Australian story. It was really good to see them and to feel yet another personal connection with this great country.