🛰 Wattle Day 2019: Melbourne [Altona] 🌼
Acknowledgement of Country
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the Land on which our event is located and their continuing connection to Country and community. We pay our respect to Elders past, present and emerging. We recognise the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Australians and we are committed to honouring their unique cultural and spiritual relationships to the land, waters and seas, and their rich contribution to society.
Join us for a casual ‘meet and greet’ style geocaching event, before your Father's Day celebrations, to recognise the re-awakening of interest in an old tradition, National Wattle Day.
- Location: Logan Reserve
Esplanade, Altona VIC 3018
- Date: Sunday, 1st September 2019
- Time: 9:30am (09:30) - 10:30am (10:30)
- Bring: any trackables for discovery or swapping.
- Customs: wear a sprig of wattle, and greet geocachers & muggles alike with "Happy Wattle Day".
If you plan on coming along, please log a ‘Will Attend’.
Everyone is welcome and we look forward to celebrating Wattle Day with you!
As well as being the official start of Spring in the Southern Hemisphere, the 1st of September is a day of celebration in Australia, known as National Wattle Day. Wattle Day has been celebrated since the early 1900's (with origins dating back to the early 1800’s). In 1992, it was declared that "1 September in each year shall be observed as 'National Wattle Day' throughout Australia and in the external Territories of Australia".
Spring is a time when many wattles (acacias) are blossoming, and people often wear a sprig of the flowers and leaves to celebrate the day. Although the national floral emblem of Australia is a particular species, called the Golden Wattle (Acacia pycnantha), any wattle can be worn to celebrate the day. Wattle is seen as a unique and quintessential Australian symbol.
Perhaps Dr Rod Panter summed it up best when he wrote in 1997 that: "Wattle and Wattle Day can symbolise virtually anything we want, but they relate generally to Spring, being Australian, the Australian environment, and history. Spring has many positive values such as optimism, bounty and abundance, reliability, colour, new life and so on. We can celebrate our 'Australianness' on Wattle Day in quite a different way from ANZAC Day, which in recalling past wars glorifies Australian qualities of courage and mateship. Wattle Day, by contrast, looks forward (to Spring) and can celebrate the nation's undoubted qualities of good humour, fairness, generosity, informality and democracy."
Geocaching & Wattle Day
Prior to the announcement of Groundspeak's 'Where in the World is Signal The Frog®?' Australia Day 2018 promotion, the first Wattle Day event was held in New York City [Manhattan, NY] in 2017. The geocaching community has since embraced Wattle Day and it’s spread like 'wildfire'.
2019 will be our 3rd straight year! To celebrate, the following Wattle Day events are being held in:
For a full list of Wattle Day events, visit the official official global list.
Further reading: The Golden Wattle Flag - Why the Wattle? and the Wattle Day Association.
Happy Wattle Day,
Mary & David