City will celebrate Australia Day three days early to free up long weekend

Mayor Ben Blain said the council decided it would combine its citizenship ceremony and hand out Australia Day awards at the same event on Tuesday, January 23, 2024 from 6pm at the Lighthouse Theatre studio.

He said the rules stipulated events needed to be held within three days of Australia Day.

"We decided to have it then so if anyone was going away, or anyone wanted to do something on the long weekend they'd be free to do it and still be able to make it to the citizenship ceremony and the Australia Day awards," Cr Blain said.

"That's the main reason we put it on the 23rd. There's no statement behind it, it was just so anyone who wanted to go away or do something else on Australia Day, the long weekend would be free.

"It will be an evening event and it's going to be amazing and hopefully we'll see lots of people there."

Cr Blain said the event could return to Australia Day in future years.

"Its possible it could go back to Australia Day, there's no hard or fast rules. It's just this year we've decided to put it on the 23^rd to free everyone up for the long weekend," he said.

The change of date comes as councils came under fire from Member for Wannon and opposition spokesman for Immigration and Citizenship Dan Tehan who called on all councils to induct new citizens on Australia Day.

Mr Tehan claimed the Albanese Government was undermining Australia Day and that was paying dividends with more than 80 councils refusing to conduct citizenship ceremonies on the national day.

Last year, the citizen of the year award was announced at an event at the library the day before Australia Day and the citizenship ceremony on Australia Day at the Lighthouse Theatre.

Pre-COVID, Australia Day was celebrated at the Botanic Gardens - an event that always drew a huge crowd - but it never returned after the pandemic.

There are no plans to revive the event.

In 2023, some residents assumed things would be back to normal after the pandemic and turned up to the gardens assuming the popular Australia Day event would have returned only to find no one there.

The council had previously told The Standard that fewer people were turning out to the gardens' event and it had initiated discussions with the region's First Nations Peoples about making the Australia Day event a stronger reflection of what it is to be an Australian.

In 2021, an Australia Day event was held on the Civic Green to comply with COVID rules but in 2022 it shifted to the Lighthouse Theatre.

Glenelg Shire Council announced last year that it would no longer hold Australia Day events, and Corangamite Shire Council said it was open to change.