lado.be

Bernarda Maia February 13th, 2008

The Australia Day was Saturday 26th of January and here, when a holiday falls in a weekend, the holiday passes to Monday. If we do that in Brazil we wouldn’t work any more because we have so many holidays most of which are useless.

The weekend had lots of celebrations around the country, including, in Melbourne, lots of things like expositions, exhibitions of films, the nomination of the Australian citizen of the year, concerts and a RUBBER DUCK RACE!

Yes, that’s it! The rubber duck race happens every year on the Yarra River. You buy your numbered duck on the website of the race for AU$5. Unfortunately we discovered it too late, because the winner won a car.

When I heard about the race I though it was bizarre but when I saw the pictures of twelve thousand ducks in last year’s race on the Internet, I convinced myself that it was true. This year there were 27,000 rubber ducks with their swimming caps (painted, of course) ready to start.

There was a Drag “Duck” Queen who was responsible for the beginning of the race. She was wearing yellow clothes and an embroidered umbrella also yellow. It was very funny but the funniest thing was the narration of the race by a guy who didn’t have much to say because the race finished in 5 minutes and number 25,888 was the winner.

The race was managed from four boats. Between two of the boats were swimming pool lane ropes and the ducks swam through this lane. The other two boats helped to keep the ducks inside the lane and picked up those that escaped. Some ducks, however, were getting close to the riverbank, the boats couldn’t get them, and children ran to get them (I tried also). There was a boy with an Australian flag over his shoulders who jumped into the river, took some of the rubber ducks and threw them to the children on the side, waiting.

I found it very interesting to see Australian citizens wearing clothes with the Australia colors and flags on their national day, especially the young citizens, because it demonstrates that they are proud of their nation.

The 26th of January 1788 was the day that the English Captain Arthur Phillip arrived in Sydney, New South Wales, and established a new colony. Since then, this day has been celebrated as not only the day that the first Europeans arrived but also as the start of Australian history, at least in the eyes of the world, because like the Brazilian Indians in my own country, the Aborigines had been living here for thousands of years.

Whoever had this idea of a rubber duck race, had a strange idea but it works!

• "Rubber Duck Race" , River , Yarra , australia