Community & Business
31 January, 2025
Australia Day on the Southern Downs
One event held on the Southern Downs on Sunday at Dalveen was Citizen of the Year Awards.
One event held on the Southern Downs on Sunday at Dalveen was Citizen of the Year Awards.
Was this part of Australia Day celebrations?
There was no mention of Australia Day on the website of Southern Downs Regional Council which named the Award winners on Sunday.
This is in stark contrast to the Toowoomba Regional Council which sponsored eight Australia Day Award Ceremonies throughout the region as well as supporting an Australia Day event at Jondaryan Woolshed.
This photo of “Spurs” from Allora says it all - he, along with so many locals are proud to be Australian and celebrate our wonderful country and way of life.
Mayor explains lack of Oz Day reference
The Southern Downs Regional Council was asked by The Allora Advertiser why no reference was made to Australia Day in relation to these awards, despite this being the traditional thing. Does the Council have some policy against Australia Day?
Here is the reply from Southern Downs Mayor Melissa Hamilton -
‘Council has been faced with declining nominations for our citizen of the year awards over the last few years. To highlight the purpose of the awards and make it clearer to residents that it is to celebrate our community champions, this year we referred to them as the “Citizen of the Year Awards”.
We were very happy to have a marked increase in nominations this year.
Council will continue to hold the awards on Australia Day, along with the Australia Day citizenship ceremony and other celebrations.
Both the awards and the citizenship ceremony remind us what it means to be a proud Australian, and I was overjoyed that more than 100 residents joined with me on the day in the affirmation of our loyalty to Australia and its people.
We were also honoured to host an Australia Day Ambassador at our event, Mr Matt Levy OAM whose achievements are an inspirational example of an outstanding citizen.’
