31 December

Everything about how 2019 ended, including people huddled on the shore for safety from fires, scared of their own country, converged for me upon Gammage's words about post-1788 Australia. Right now we're all mostly just visiting a land we still don't understand at all: "A majestic achievement ended. Only fragments remain. For the people of 1788 the loss was stupefying. For the newcomers it did not seem great. Until recently few noticed that they had lost anything at all. Knowledge of how to sustain Australia, of how to be Australian, vanished with barely a whisper of regret. We have a continent to learn. If we are to survive, let alone feel at home, we must begin to understand our country. If we succeed, one day we might become Australian."