G'Day Mates! It's Australia Day.

They can boast Hugh Jackman, cricket, beer-drinking as a national pastime and tim tams, but today, Australia's got another reason to celebrate: the national holiday, Australia Day is January 26. Let's take a look at the delights from down under.

First, it's worth noting that celebrating the founding of the great country 222 years ago wasn't marked with always such glee. It's no secret that Australia (then known as New South Wales) was founded primarily as a penal colony, with British convicts transported there to work in agricultural camps. After years of trials and hardships with his new settlement, Captain Arthur Phillips, who had been tasked with making the eight-month journey with 1,000 men (700 of whom were convicts) to this new land, the colony turned around and proved prosperous, as a new found sense of patriotism settled in.

A detriment of the colonization, however, which is also acknowledged as part of Australia Day ( a national holiday since 1818), was the scattering of Australia's native people, Aboriginals, who were dispossessed of their land. Thanks to the Commonwealth Native Title Act 1993,  Aboriginal people are now able to seek recognition of their Native Title to land.

Australia is more than wallabys and Mick Dundee, of course. The beaches are illustrious, the food is world class and the cities of Melbourne and Sydney are trés cosmopolitan. Aussies take their beaches and lifeguarding duties almost as serious as their beer drinking. A good case in point: Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke once held the record (in 1953) in the Guiness Book of World Records for drinking a yard of beer in under 11 seconds. (A feat, he attributed to helping his political career.)

They've also been heralded for their advances in environmentalism long before Leonardo DiCaprio hung out with Knut on the cover of Vanity Fair. As a friend who lived in Australia for many years recalls, "I remember going to the grocery store in Melbourne in 1984 and they were selling recycled paper goods. In 1984! It took the states years to catch up to where they were with that."

So whether you're an honest to goodness Aussie ex-pat, or an honorary citizen of the great land of Oz, Happy Australia Day.

Photo courtesy Wollombi@Flickr