Corangamite Shire embraces jump in multiculturalism as new citizens welcomed

The comments come as the council inducted 13 Australian citizens at its monthly meeting, including new Heytesbury District Landcare Coordinator Michelle Leech, from South Africa.

"It's really exciting," Ms Leech said.

"It's been a long time coming. When you move to somewhere new, that's the dream - you hope to make a home, settle in and feel like you belong, so it was really exciting to reach that point."

Ms Leech was joined by her husband John and her three sons Jesse, 15, Nicholas, 12, and Dominic, 10.

The family of five were one of many to now call the shire home. Latest council data shows Corangamite Shire welcomed 20 Australian citizens in the past nine months, including from New Zealand, the Philippines, India, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Canada, Finland, Ecuador and Eritrea.

Historical census data shows the shire has been slow to diversify. The percentage of residents born in Australia has hovered at about 85 per cent for five years, far more than the state average of 65, but has decreased from just over 89 per cent in 2011.

At last count in 2021, the next top countries of birth were New Zealand (1.8 per cent), England (1.7), Netherlands (0.5), Philippines (0.5) and Scotland (0.3).

Mayor Ruth Gstrein said the latest jump in multiculturalism was most welcome.

"It's changing the face of Corangamite Shire and it's absolutely wonderful to have people from different cultures come into our communities," she said.

"We're getting to know them and they're providing much needed workers and we're really appreciative of that as well as what they bring to our communities in terms of their culture, which is very exciting.

"We have so many opportunities and I certainly urge everybody living in the shire to take the opportunities that are there and make the most of them.

"It's great we've got new people moving into our community whether it's overseas or other parts of Victoria or Australia - they all add something to the well-being and the diversification of Corangamite Shire. "

Ms Leech was thrilled she could put her expertise to use by filling the role left by long-time HDLN coordinator Geoff Rollinson.

"Taking on the role has been really exciting - it's such a great team," she said.

"Developing new connections and getting to know people a lot more deeply, it's just really good to do something like that around here.

"Work's been a big one for me because I've been working full time and a lot of my friendships have developed through this role. I think John's similar, he's probably done longer hours in the past so it was a little more challenging to find that balance, but we're getting there slowly.

"John's a Kiwi, he moved to South Africa for six years and then we moved to New Zealand for seven and decided we wanted to find a place of our own.

"We thought Australia had lots of options for road trips and exploring and that sort of thing, so it seemed like a good fit for us in terms of values and interests so we thought we'd come and give it a go.

"We've been in Timboon for a year and a half now. We remembered it was a lovely place and town to live in and thought it would be a wonderful spot to settle down.

"Everyone's been very welcoming in the community so it's never felt like we've been on our own."

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