"It's hard to believe the first settlers once looked at that view in absolute despair, isn't it?"

My mate and I were watching the sunset on the harbour, very near Sydney Cove, where a little over two hundred years ago, a thousand white settlers came close to starvation as they battled to establish the colony that would become modern Australia.

Whatever your political, moral or racial views on this event, it's hard to argue with the magic of the country we inherited and the nation we have become.

Many will celebrate this Monday in much the same manner it has been for the last 20 years or so - jingoistically, with too much alcohol and the music you liked nine months ago, thanks to the increasingly naff Hottest 100.