Item: Australia 200 Years – The Spirit Of Australia – 20 Medal Collection
This folder was put together for the bicentenary celebrations in Australia.
It comes with an informative colour booklet and the coins set in a card on the back leaf. Each medal is forged from chromed steel, 27mm across.
The folder has some minor cornering and some faded edge wear. One of the medals has a small mark on the rim which could be a rust spot but it does not significantly detract from the overall item.
The bicentenary of Australia was celebrated in 1970 on the 200th anniversary of Captain James Cook landing and claiming the land and again in 1988 to celebrate 200 years of permanent European settlement.
As an educational item for a school project or just those looking to collect Australian memorabilia it is nice item to own.
Design
All medallions are pressed and chrome coated steel.
Housed in an informative booklet with information pertaining to the last 200 years of australian events.
Medals depict:
Captain Cook 1728-1779
The landing of the first fleet
John Macarthur 1766-1834
Matthew Flinders 1774-1814
Gregory Blaxland, William Wentworth & William Lawson
The Eureka Stockade 1854
Robert O’Hara Burke 1821-1861 & William John Wills 1834-1861
Australian Rules Football 1858 Ned Kelly 1855-1880
Henry Lawson 1867-1922 Banjo Paterson 1864-1941
The Ashes
The Anzacs 1915
Sir Charles Kingsford Smith 1997-1937
Phar Lap 1930
The Sydney Harbour Bridge 1932
New Australia’s growing nation
The first Holden 1948
The Golden Age of Sport
Australia II 1983
New Parliament House
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History
1970 saw the bicentenary of Captain James Cook’s arrival and claiming of the east coast of Australia in 1770. The name of the place on which he is believed to have made first landfall was renamed from Cape Everard back to the name Cook had given it, Point Hicks. 1988 The bicentennial year of Captain Arthur Phillip’s arrival with the 11 ships of the First Fleet in Sydney Harbour in 1788, and the founding of the city of Sydney and the colony of New South Wales. The Australian Bicentennial Authority (ABA) was set up to plan, fund and coordinate projects that emphasized the nation’s cultural heritage. State Councils were also created to ensure cooperation between the federal and state governments. The result was a national programme of events and celebrations to commemorate the Bicentenary, including:
Australia Live, a television special on New Year’s Night.
The arrival of the First Fleet Re-enactment Voyage in Sydney Harbour on Australia Day.
World Expo 88 in Brisbane, the largest event of these celebrations.
Australian Bicentennial Exhibition, toured throughout Australia
All Australian schoolchildren were presented with a Bicentennial “Heritage Medallion”
The issue by the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (from late 1987 to the end of 1988) of over 160,000 commemorative Bicentennial number plates which were sold at a premium.
The painting of A class locomotive A66 by regional Victorian train operator V/Line in a unique green and gold livery featuring the official ABA Bicentennial Logo and the wording ‘1788 Australian Bicentennary 1988’.
Aus Steam ’88, a railway display of steam locomotives at Spencer Street Station.
(All history taken from Wikipedia for educational purposes only.)
