Australia Day is one of the more popular public holidays throughout our great land. Since 1988 it has been a unified holiday throughout all states and traditionally for most of us it means relaxing, having a BBQ and a cold beverage of the alcoholic variety.

Lamb is one of the more popular meats of choice on Australia Day, especially in recent times, and many of us consider this to be a tradition. As a matter of fact lamb is not at all related to the tradition of Australia Day except for the fact it is one of many meats that can be cooked on a BBQ. Unfortunately, if you believe that lamb is part of Australia Day tradition it seems that you’re just a sheep following the masses that believe everything they see on TV!

Historically speaking, Australia Day celebrates the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788. For indigenous Australians this is not necessarily something to be celebrated and many refer to Australia Day as “Invasion Day”.

In 2005, a massive marketing campaign was undertaken by Meat & Livestock Australia to promote lamb as the meat to eat on Australia Day. The campaign, headed by Sam Kekovich, was so successful that it has become an annual event and each year we’re inundated with advertisements encouraging us to eat lamb on Australia Day. Below is the original Lamb advertisement.

These campaigns are notorious for pushing the boundaries of political correctness and sensitivity, which is a recipe that seems to work for the Australian public, or at least those that intend on eating meat on Australia Day.

The 2016 campaign is ruffling feathers amongst the vegan community. The scene that is causing the most uproar occurs when a man proclaims that he is vegan and a team of special agents apply a blow torch to a bowl of kale on his table. We are taking a punt here in guessing that most Australian’s would think this part of the ad is pretty damn funny and the fact that vegans are outraged is only going to give the campaign more publicity and popularity among the masses. Below is the 2016 lamb Australia Day campaign.

Whether you choose to have lamb, pork, beef of a tofu kebab on the BBQ on Australia Day the main thing is to have a great feed, relax and enjoy the freedom and lifestyle we enjoy in this great land we call Australia.