PM Transcripts

FCR PRESS: P. M. No. 61969 K
AUSTRALIA DAY MESSAGE
From the Prime Minister, Mr. John Gorton
This is the last Australia Day of the 60' s a decade marked
by historic changes and by the quickening of remarkable growth for Australia.
In a year's time, we will celebrate the 200th anniversary of
Captain Cook's discovery of the east coast of Australia. just eighteen years
after that famous voyage, the First Fleet arrived in New South Wales and a
nation was born. So much has been done since then, There is so much yet to do.
This is our National Day and I give special welcome to all
those new settlers who, in the past year, have come to join us and to those
new Australians of longer standing who have taken out citizenship. May
Australia Day be a landmark each year of your lives, on your journey into
a bright and happy future.
For us all, old and new Australians alike, this is a time when
we should acknowledge what the pioneers of this country have done.
We should remember their triumph over the dangers of the
unknown and their success in making a nation in a harsh and vast environment.
We should remember the inheritance we have drawn from the
older civilisations which have given us democracy and the rule of law, a
great love of life and liberty and a resolution to preserve peace when we
have it and fight for it when it is at risk.
At the same time, we should recognise Australia Day as an
inspiration for the future. I believe we are on the threshold of a tremendous
surge forward as a nation.
I believe that 30 years from now, by the year 2000, we could
have more than twice as many people as we have today living in a free and
prosperous country where need and poverty are things of the past.
I believe we can make an increasingly significant contribution
to peace and progress in South East Asia and the Pacific, and that our voice
will be heard with growing respect in the world councils.
But these things will not happen by the natural course of events.
They will flow only from the energy, the enthusiasm, the skills and the
loyalties of all Australians.
These are the qualities that have advanced us to where we
stand today, and which hold the key to a boundless future.
CANBERRA 24 January 1969