Monday, December 30, 2013

An Australian New Year's Eve.... 1912 Style

Australians are a "Weird Mob" as John O'Grady aka "Nino Culotta" once said.

An article I found on Trove from the The Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933), Saturday 28 December 1912, page 14 describes a very "proper", though community spirited New Year's celebration.



National Library of Australiahttp://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1983053
"New Year's Eve at Sandgate
A novel entertainment is to be held on the Rectory Hill at Sandgate Central on Tuesday evening (New Year's Eve). The hill, which is just above the Post Office, is to be illuminated with 400 coloured lamps and by the local Gas Company. An ox is to be roasted whole, and there is to be "a grand parish feast" in the old English style. The ground will be open at 6 o'clock and supper will be served at 10. The menu will consist of roast beef, plum pudding, and home brewed ale, and also other other refreshments and amusements, with open air promenade concert, band music, and village dances. At midnight, a watch-night open air service will be heralded by the chiming of a peal of bells, which will ring the old year out and the new year in, followed by Christmas carols, sung by St. Nicholas's choir. The Railway Department has arranged for a special midnight train to leave Sandgate Central at 12:15 for the city and intermediate stations."

While a post card sent to my Great Grandmother in December of the same year, 1912, and passed onto my Grandmother for her collection, shows the irreverent and larrikin side of Australian humour



Hoping you may fall into a good thing in the New Year 
So whether you are having a civilized and quite New Year's celebration, with fiends and family, go to bed early with a cuppa, or go a bit wild and let your hair down, I wish you all the best for the New Year, and may many brick walls tumble down and new friendships be forged.

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