SWAN Hill’s popular Australia Day breakfast at Riverside Park is returning this year after a five-year hiatus.
The breakfast was a staple event for more than 40 years, but was taken off the menu by Swan Hill Council after long-time volunteers ended their association after the milestone anniversary in 2020.
The council was told at the December ordinary meeting that Rotary Club of Swan Hill were willing to host an Australia Day breakfast in Riverside Park on January 26.
“It was recognised that such an event may not be on the scale of the historical Australia Day breakfasts, however Rotary Club of Swan Hill representatives indicated that they felt that it was important to have an event,” director of development and planning Michelle Grainger said in a report.
Rotary Club of Swan Hill will collaborate with the Lions Club and Sunrise Rotary to host the breakfast, from 7am to 10am.
Attendees will have the opportunity to either buy or bring their own breakfast and enjoy local entertainment.
Swan Hill Council agreed at the meeting to allocate $5000 in event funding to Rotary for costs associated with the provision of the sound system, entertainment and breakfast items.
The organising committee advised they intend making the event a free event although they would be accepting gold coin donations with the proceeds to be used for future Australia Day breakfasts.
This year’s Australia Day festivities begin a day earlier, on Saturday, January 25, with citizenship ceremonies and award ceremonies in Robinvale, from 9am at Robinvale Community Arts Centre, and Swan Hill, 6.30pm at Swan Hill Town Hall.
The Shared Connections event will be held from 6pm at Riverside Park, Swan Hill.
Additional events would also be held in Beverford, Lake Boga, Nyah/Nyah West, Boundary Bend, Robinvale, Manangatang, Piangil, Wemen, and Woorinen.
Ms Grainger said the council received a briefing on the outcomes of the community survey following the 2024 Australia Day events and there was a “clear indication from those who responded that there was a desire to again conduct an Australia Day breakfast in Swan Hill on January 26”.
“Council directed a process to call for expressions of interest from interested community groups or individuals wishing to host an Australia Day event and placed
advertisements in the local media and on its webpage,” she said.
Cr Les McPhee thanked the service clubs for putting their hands up to organise the breakfast, but questioned the $10,000 funding for the Shared Connections event.
“The State Government can come up with $10,000 to fund the Shared Connections, but they give us no funding for Australia Day, and they talk about equality and all being one.
“Well, if they can have a Shared Connections event, which I’ve got no issues with, also give us some funding so we can have Australia Day as well.
“I think it’s appropriate that we’ve got here. We’ll look at it into the future.
“I still have concerns over $10,000 towards the awards and citizenship ceremony becuse we have been able to it a lot cheaper in the past and then could have put more money towards Australia Day functions.”
Cr Lindsay Rogers said Australia Day was a “great success” in the smaller towns.
“It brings everyone together in our community,” he said.
“We all live in this country together, and I fully support bringing people together.”
Cr Hugh Broad said he was excited by the planning functions.
“Australia Day was a really big thing for me growing up in Swan Hill,” he said.
“I think it was a really critical day of the community and celebrating nations.”
The Institute of Public Affairs’ annual poll of attitudes about the holiday revealed 69 per cent of Australians agreed with the statement, “Australia Day should be celebrated on January 26”.
It comes as Opposition Leader Peter Dutton announced he would, within the first 100 days of governing, mandate councils had to offer citizenship ceremonies on January 26, if elected.
This rule had previously been in place but was repealed in 2022 to allow councils to conduct citizenship ceremonies three days before or after Australia Day.
Mr Dutton said Australia should recognise the good and bad in its history, rather than shy away from it.
“There are millions of Australians who have made the migrant journey to our country,” Mr Dutton said.
“They have enriched this country, and for many of them Australia Day is sacrosanct because they became citizens on that day.
“We have an incredible Indigenous history we should celebrate and we have an incredible migrant story. We should celebrate that as well.”
The date Australia Day is held has become controversial because it marks the arrival of the British First Fleet to Australia and for many Indigenous Australians the beginning of generations of discrimination and dispossession.
Pressed about the issue, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese avoided weighing in.
“I will be attending the national Australia Day commemorations as I have done every year in which I have been Labor leader,” Mr Albanese said.
“I hope that Peter Dutton this year makes a choice to join the national Australia Day celebrations in Canberra. That is what I did as the Opposition Leader.”
