Its just that they're a bit rubbish at it, and don't really know what to do with it when they have it.
The Australians have this sense of guilt regarding history. This can be manifested in a guilt as to the lack of it. Canberra is full of sculptures, public art, an obvious attempt to make up for a lack of history in this young purpose-built town. If you can't have interesting buildings, then at least have interesting spaces. This is fine and a good thing. It can be quite fun finding random sculptures dotted around Canberra. The set of spirit levels running down a hill near the lake is one of my favourites. But Australia does have history.
More often, the guilt is at what happened in the past. Perhaps more so than other countries, the Australians feel rather guilty about their past. The past is brutal, there are no all good nations. Yet young countries like to believe they are, that their country is good. I don't think any Brits are under the impression that our country has been the good guys at all times, though we might believe we had overall good intentions. We know as being part of a 1,000 year old continuous country, that there are probably felons in our heritage, a few dubious characters. Do we believe that we are partly criminals or have criminal tendancies because of this. Not really. Do any of the numerous Lynch's of the world, one of Ireland's more famous family names, believe they have communist revolutionary tendancies because Che Guevara was a Lynch, or at least partly one.
Yet the convict past of Australia still has a certain amount of taboo about it. The Australians feel sensitive about the idea that there is convict dna within them. Maybe this feeling is fading, something that can be joked about more as the number of generations slowly increases. Its still a touchy subject though. When you look back at the numbers of convicts that came to Australia, and the crimes that most of them committed, why is this country sensitive about the idea that maybe one of their great-grandparents came to Australia because they stole a few handkerchiefts (look at the convictions of some of those sent to the Australian prison colonies, some of them aren't for much). Its not like most of the convicts were murderers or rapists.
This beautiful place is Port Arthur, the prison colony's prison colony's prison colony. A place with a supposedly brutal history. If only they'd tell you about it. Its alluded to, hinted at, but never mentioned, never discussed. This place is where the really bad convicts came, and those who continued to reoffend in Australia.
The biggest idea about who the convicts were came in the form of the political prisoners, some Irish separatists, English chartists and some French-Canadian separatists. (You'll be interested to learn that then as now, being a former convict didn't stop anyone from being in olitical office in later life). Not the juicy stuff.
Perhaps the most brutal part of Port Arthur's history came in 1996. The world's largest gun massacre occurred at this no tranquil site, 35 people were killed, including two children, and 21 injured. I understand completely how they don't want to bring this up. Its still fresh, raw and upsetting, the staff still remember it and knew some of those who died.
But I don't quite yet understand why the older stuff is quite so raw. Perhaps it is just a couple of generations too soon. I guess time will tell.
The Asylum, where everything was bright and breezy according to the museum inside.
Visiting the Olympic stadium and site also highlighted this issue of what Australians do with their history. Whilst still known as the Olympic Park there is hardly any trace left that this place once hosted the Olympics. No Olympic rings, no Olympic flag, no museum, no gift shop. Yet around the entire site, things were happening, all the lesser stadia had people and sports taking place in them. There was a charity cycling event on. One of the event halls had one of those motivational speaker shows on (the kind where you can improve your life with the power of thought and some colouring pencils) and allegedly a Doctor Who convention (or at least a fan looking for one). The place actually had more bustle about it than some Olympic sites. In this way the legacy of the olympics is being realised. There are no (or at least very few) white elephants. But why so few mentions of the Olympics? Lets have a museum please!
The ANZ stadium, not many mentions that this stadium was the centrepiece of what was regarded as the best olympics ever. Lots of stuff about the various footie teams that populate the stadium.
And a lake full of algae, with a circular walkway, and a very strong smell of dill. Is this the Olympic legacy? An integral part of Australian history? The Australians have a lot of history, they just don't quite know what to do with it when they have it. Instead sweeping it under the carpet and getting on with the here and now.
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