As I drove out of our street on Australia Day, I saw many more front yards with flags flying, people with gold hats and drivers with flags stuck to their aerials, which is just great.

In the same way as we're embracing Anzac Day, we seem to have made January 26, one of our biggest celebrations of the year.

Our 2GB reporters in the city telling us that the crowds were larger than last year; another indication of how much we now treasure this day.

In 1788, after a journey of 8 months, the 11 ships of the First fleet, arrived at Farm Cove. This took place over a period of 24 hours.

The Fleet was, The Alexander, The Borrowdale, The Charlotte, The Fishburn, The Friendship, The Golden Grove, The lady Penrhyn, The Prince of Wales, The Scarborough, HMS Sirius, and HMS Supply.

Some of those names of course, can be found today, on some of the ferries, which operate in the Harbour.

And then from 1788, through until 1850, the English sent 162,000 convicts here, on 806 ships.  It was a mammoth operation.

And one which began industry, a barter system, pastoral growth, and western civilisation. It was the making and foundation, of a productive industrialised Australia.

And why we should be somehow ashamed of that start, defies any real logic.

Along with those early settlers, there developed, an often brutal colony, and an often brutal treatment of the indigenous population across the continent.

And given the huge number of aboriginal ceremonies that take place throughout this nation, on Australia Day, none of that is forgotten either.

Which is why our latest Australian of the Year, Mick Dodson, should be roundly condemned for his first statement in the job: that we should abandon January 26, move Australia Day, because it's such a day of mourning for his people.

Well, I'm sorry to say Mick, but you're a dill.

And it's not just about you, it's not just about the history of Aboriginal Australia.

It's about all Australians, when and how this nation was built.