Great Australians

noirua said:

Hi 2020, Does Governor Arthur Phillip (1738-1812) really count as an Australian? He came to found a Penal Colony and his roots are solidly in Europe.

I've decided to disqualify him. Sorry, but the decision is final, unless of course you think otherwise.

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kennas said:

Ditto. Sorry 20/20, the guy is a Pom.

Although, I think my nom was a Pom too. He was in his 20s when he moved to Oz I think.....

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2020hindsight said:

I actually posted :-
Governor Arthur Phillip (1738 - 1814) Our first great Australian ?

Now, lol, if you think I added the question mark because of a question of his being an Australian, you're mistaken

I actually meant it to apply to the word "first" lol.

ok - would you believe, mmm
a) he only went back to England so that there was one less mouth to feed? - philanthropic to the end?

b) he only went back for his health (certainly a factor this one)

c) in those days, Aus didn't even have a McDonald's m8 !! - they were doing it tough! The colony almost starved as the stocks of food reached alarmingly low levels etc.

I guess at least in those days you could drink the creek water

Can you imagine the number of decisions he had to make in that first year of Australia's existence !! - sheesh.

What A Giant of a Man! - Even if he was arguably a sort of part time Aus and part time Pom.

(PS I call him an Aus - that way an Aus gets the credit for his works )

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kennas said:

So, do we call Phar Lap a great Australian too?

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kgee said:

If we add phar lap can we put in a few more kiwi's maybe Edmund Hillary?

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vishalt said:

Of course,

they can only be Great Australians if they're celebrities or are in the encyclopedia for some reason, typical populist mindset, the rest of us aren't important at all!

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kgee said:

If we add phar lap can we put in a few more kiwi's maybe Edmund Hillary?

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The Australian government had agreed that the Australian Army's I Corps — centred on the 6th and 7th Infantry Divisions — would be transferred from North Africa to the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command, in the Netherlands East Indies. In February, following the fall of Singapore and the loss of the 8th Division, Churchill attempted to divert I Corps to reinforce British troops in Burma, without Australian approval. Curtin insisted that it return to Australia, although he agreed that the main body of the 6th Division could garrison Ceylon.

The Japanese threat was underlined on February 19, when Japan bombed Darwin, the first of many air raids on northern Australia.

By the end of 1942, the results of the battles of the Coral Sea, Milne Bay and on the Kokoda Track had averted the perceived threat of invasion. In August, Curtin led Labor to its greatest election victory up until that time.

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He was successful in what would normally have been a safe Liberal seat, and served as a state MP until 1988, when he retired two days before he was due to qualify for his parliamentary pension entitlements, as a statement against the excesses of public political office

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... After two years of being out of politics, Mack achieved even broader fame by winning the federal seat of North Sydney in 1990....
Mack retired at the 1996 election for the same reasons he had quit state politics eight years previously.

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noirua said:

John Winston Howard ( 26/7/1939 - ) 25th Prime Minister of Australia 11/3/1996 to 3/12/2007: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Howard

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