Invitation extended to Aust. bicentenary

Press, 28 January 1984, Page 5

Invitation extended to Aust. bicentenary

NZPA staff correspondent London New Zealanders will be invited to help Australia celebrate its bicentenary in 1988. The Australian Bicentennial Authority would talk to the New Zealand Government later this year about setting up a committee to plan for the celebrations, said its chairman, Mr John Reid, in London. A bicentennial committee has already been formed in the United States and others will be established in Britain, Japan, and other countries. The bicentennial celebrations will commemorate the arrival of the 1468 Britons of the First Fleet — sailors,

convicts, and Marines — at Port Jackson on January 26, 1788. The celebrations will include:— © A gathering in Australian waters of the world’s largest square-rigged sailing ships. © A festival of sport with international cricket, rugby, tennis, soccer, and yachting. ® A military tattoo and naval review. © A festival of arts with cultural exchanges in theatre, ballet, opera, orchestra, and the visual arts. “We are planning something which will involve all 16 million Australians wherever they are and

whatever they are doing,” Mr Reid said. The Australian Government has set aside $166 million for the celebrations. Australians were tired of division “as manifest so much in the political scene” and one of the aims of the celebrations was to achieve unity as they moved into the third hundred years of European settlement, Mr Reid said. Mr Reid is chairman of James Hardie Industries, Ltd, and vice-chairman of“ Qantas.