Wattle Day 2018 - Melbourne [Botanic Gardens]
Join us for a casual 'meet & greet' event in Botanic Gardens of Melbourne to celebrate Wattle Day.
- Location: The Terrace Cafe, Botanic Gardens (indoor if weather is poor, else outdoor. Ask for Wattle Day event)
- Date: Saturday, 1st September 2018
- Time: 9.45am to 11.15am
- Bring: Any trackables for discovery or swapping. Food and drinks are available to purchase.
- Wear: if you feel like getting in the spirit, wear a sprig of wattle or colours of the Wattle Flag
If you plan on coming along, please log a 'Will Attend'.
Everyone is welcome, and we look forward to meeting local and visiting geocachers and their friends/families!
Are you a newbie cacher attending your first event? If you enjoy Geocaching and wish to take your membership further, you will be eligible for 1 month FREE upgrade to Premium Membership after you attend this event. See AlphaDeltaIndigo at the event for the details.
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. Spring is a time when many wattles (acacias) are blossoming, and people 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.
In 2017, before Groundspeak's 'Where in the World is Signal The Frog®?' Australia Day 2018 promotion, JordsAU held a Wattle Day event in New York City (GC79ZMT). The geocaching community has since embraced Wattle Day and the idea spread like wild fire, with events popping up in other locations the following year, including Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. We hope this tradition continues to grow in the years to come.
Acknowledgement of Country
We would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which the event is located, the Boon Wurrung people of the Koolin Nation. We also would like to pay our respects to their Elders - past, present and emerging.
Further reading: The Golden Wattle Flag - Why the Wattle? and the Wattle Day Association.
Happy Wattle Day,
AlphaDeltaIndigo