The 26th January is Australia Day - a public holiday in Australia where we commemorate the arrival of white settlers on the First Fleet in 1788. For me, Australia Day has always consisted of a number of traditional events with family and friends: backyard cricket (while drinking a beer), jumping in the swimming pool fully clothed after getting all hot and sweaty playing cricket, listening to the Triple J Hottest 100 countdown, watching the Australian Open Tennis on TV, a BBQ lunch or dinner, eating watermelon and ripe juicy mangoes...

Here's a wrap up of Australia Day from the blogosphere:

Sarah Cooks has some fantastic photos on her blog (and a rather delicious sounding post!) on the pavlovas she made in honour of Australia day:

If you are in the habit of making custards and ice-creams, it is inevitable that you will amass a great deal of egg-whites. I didn't realise quite how many egg whites I'd collected over the past year, all neatly glad-bagged and stashed in random locations around our freezer, until my mother and I cleaned it out a few weeks ago.

Ahem. This weekend, being the Australia Day weekend, presented me with a good opportunity to work my way through these egg whites. I volunteered to make a couple of pavlovas for my friend Jordy's barbecue on Sunday, a gooseberry ice-cream meringue stack, and some mini-pavlovas for my family to eat on Australia Day itself (Friday).

J celebrates Australia Day in Canada:

well here we are. It’s Australia day and we’re still in Canada. Where are all the aussie pubs in edmonton? i for one can’t find them. so we went to the next best thing, the outback steakhouse. it took me 4 buses there. count them. 4. it’s on the main road south and is poorly serviced by buses. when we got there, there was no mention of australia day! what a farce!

Vic posts about her Australia Day, including what she missed out on:

I missed out on playing goon of fortune. That's my regret for the day. A friend only recently told me about this game, and that they play it for Australia Day. What it is: a goon bag (the sack thing out of a cheap cask of wine) on a hill's hoist (rotary clothesline). Everyone stands around it and then you spin the clothesline. Whoever it lands on drinks. Beats the hell out of swinging from the clothesline.

Claire at Kiddley (Everyday Ideas for You and Your Kids) has some great ideas on how to celebrate Australia Day with your kids.

I love this next blog, which is written by a dog, Texas, who had a pretty busy Australia Day for a dog!

Australia Day started like this. My hoomans and I slept until about midday (this is really pretty weird because my Dad is usually up at about 8am on the weekends and Mum soon follows. Dad did get up but then went back to bed). The hoomans said that we all probably needed the sleep.

Contributing Editor Jules also blogs at Jetsetting Jules, and was too busy playing backyard cricket to blog this on Australia Day.