Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia Ms Quentin Bryce AC

2011 Australia Day recorded address

Hello - I hope you’ve spent today with family and friends, on this first Australia Day of the new decade.
 

It is a day to celebrate, but I know that, for many of you, 2011 has already delivered heartache and loss.

Once again, summer in Australia has delivered a dreadful mixture of natural disaster and devastation, with floods in five states, and bush fires in Western Australia.

In the last few weeks, I’ve visited residents and rescue workers in some of the severely flood affected regions and I’ve found that people really have to talk. Indeed, they need to talk and that need will not disappear when the sofas, the beds and the families are back in their rightful place. I’ve been privileged to be included in their conversations during these traumatic times.

Those of us who have not experienced such pain can still play an important role in the months and years to come, by sitting and listening, holding a hand, patting a back – just being there on the end of a phone. Healing happens - but not in a vacuum.

Across our country today, our fellow Australians are engaged in the grim and dirty task of cleaning up their homes and businesses or finding a place to live; rehabilitating stock and land; settling children into new routines. Grieving.

And the spirit of Australia will be with them, through the thousands of volunteers who are putting their own lives on hold to help. Many will be strangers to these wrecked homes and factories and high streets, but they come as friends. For them, Australia Day is probably just a note on the calendar. But what they are doing for their fellow Australians is what our country is really all about.

Australia is a broad, ancient land of complex and diverse natural environments. When the elements are thrown out of balance, we are vulnerable to the extremes of drought, fire, wind and flood.

In many ways, that vulnerability makes us tough, and the past few weeks have shown that it makes us compassionate, too.

Australia has bred a certain stamp of people. We don’t hesitate to rally in a crisis, to leap in and save a stranger, to work through days and nights of peril and exhaustion, to open our homes and wallets, to look out for others. Further afield, we are touched by what we see and read, and we ask “what can I do to help?”

The answer is – a lot. Across the nation, Australians have donated their time, money, goods and homes to perfect strangers. We need to ensure that generosity will extend beyond the initial shock and sympathy.

There is a certain courage in what we do when faced with such appalling adversity. I see it often in little country towns, in the sick and the caring, in Afghanistan.

There is also dignity, resourcefulness, optimism and good humour.

We are a vast mix of people and influences, and yet we each have our own idea of what it means to be an Australian.

On this Australia Day, let’s shine the light on what we are, and what we’re capable of.

We have a deep and infinite store of talent, spirit and goodwill. If we celebrate that today, we are a stronger nation for it.

Thank you, Australians. You make me proud and hopeful.