We checked the local newspaper to look for any events to celebrate the occasion. Earlier this morning a citizenship ceremony was held. Afterwards there was to be a flotilla of small boats. As I'd never seen a "parade on water", we went to see what it was all about.
This is a Google Earth map of part of Mandurah. It's a coastal tourist city of approximately 84,000 people. I seem to have a theme of living in tourist locations near water! Mandurah fronts the Indian ocean (at the top of this photo), and its ocean entrance channel runs down the middle of the photo. We live to the right of the channel. To the left you can see a network of canals, and those canals have homes fronting them.
It's a little difficult to see in this photo, but we're looking down the channel, towards the ocean. I've marked a yellow star on the map photo, to show where we were standing. Most of the width of the channel is filled with boats, moored to watch the flotilla.
When I looked to my right, there were more boats "parked" waiting.
This photo is looking to my left, into the canal that's part of the route. This was taken just shortly before the event started. The flotilla started at the ocean entrance, turned into the first canal, and then wove its way through the canals and out back into the channel.
Not surprisingly, most boats were outfitted with kangaroos (look for yellow - in this photo, one off the bow, and one up top).
This was one of a few pontoon boats, all filled with people, flags, and kangaroos.
As always, it was easy to engage with others and learn more about the area, and this celebration. I'll tell you more about Mandurah during the remainder of our three-week stay here.
Reflecting on my first Australia Day in Australia, I realized that although I've lived in Canada for more than 40 years, I've never been to a Canada Day parade. Perhaps I should put that on my to-do list :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Location: Mandurah, Western Australia
Weather: High of 31ºC (88ºF), low of 22ºC (72ºF)
No comments:
Post a Comment