SWAN Hill’s much-loved Australia Day breakfast event at Riverside Park has been cancelled for this year, with the Swan Hill Australia Day event organisers making the difficult decision this week.
With the ever-increasing case numbers in Swan Hill, the decision has been made to cancel the breakfast with risk of transmission deemed too great for the event to continue safely.
The award ceremony will now be live-streamed for the public to view online, with the address from ambassador Diane James AM set to commence at 8am on Wednesday, January 26.
Swan Hill Rural City Council would like to remind the public that this ceremony will not be open to the public, the event instead will be held behind closed doors.
Significant work had been put in by the committee to create a COVID-safe breakfast event, however with the increasing numbers set to rise over the next few weeks the risk was deemed too much for the event to continue.
The cancellation is another set back for the city of Swan Hill, with last year’s event also being affected, however plans are already in motion for a bigger and better event in 2023.
Acting chief executive of Swan Hill Rural City Council Rosanne Kava was adamant that the decision was a very difficult one to make, however was necessary in order to protect the community.
“Cancelling the popular Australia Day breakfast was a very difficult decision, but Council has a role to play in protecting our community and supporting our local health care providers,” she said.
Numbers released on Thursday morning revealed that the Swan Hill LGA had 40 new positive cases, bringing the active cases number to 271.
“Although it is disappointing that we will not come together on this occasion, cancelling the event is in the best interest of our community during this time, by making this decision we are doing our part to try and stop the spread of the virus,” Ms Kava said.
With a massive amount of time invested by volunteers in the organisation of the breakfast, Ms Kava wanted to thank all those involved and remind people they would be able to watch the proceedings through the council’s Facebook page.
“I’d like to thank all those involved in helping to arrange the Australia Day breakfast, the committee and community groups who put their hands up to support this event,” she said.
Despite the disappointment of this year’s breakfast being cancelled, Ms Kava was optimistic about the prospects of next year’s breakfast, confirming work was already being done for next year’s event.
“We look forward to breakfasting with you in 2023, with the Australia Day committee already busy planning for a exciting and memorable event,” she said.
