Committee hopes to again host citizenship ceremony on Australia Day

The citizenship ceremony had been a feature of the Taree Australia Day function since the Combined Services Clubs took on the organisation of the day in 2020.

However, the ceremony was moved to Forster this year and held on Monday, January 29.

This drew criticism from Federal Member for Lyne, Dr David Gillepsie, former Great Taree City mayor Eddie Loftus and Cr Peter Epov.

"We have already advised some councillors of our willingness to hold the morning ceremony again in conjunction with the citizenship ceremony in 2025,'' organising committee chair Rhonda Futterleib said.

"We feel the Taree riverbank gives all new citizens a perfect backdrop to celebrate their Australian citizenship on a public holiday when they don't have to miss work.''

The committee made the decision to switch the Australia Day award presentation to the evening this year. Mrs Futterleib said this would be reviewed.

"As we did not receive any funding from council we needed to be able to provide as much as we could with the funding we had,'' she explained.

"Combining it all to the evening was our only option when council moved the citizenship ceremony to the Monday,'' she said.

The crowd was well down for the evening concert/presentation. While the area battled through a 40 plus degree day, Mrs Futterleib said it had cooled by the late evening.

"It was just unfortunate about the heat but the last four Australia Days have also been very hot,'' she pointed out.

"Our sponsors and volunteers were very supportive with some being on the park from set up to pack up.

"Being able to provide multicultural aspects through the Indigenous, Indian, Filipino and Papuan groups at the concert allowed us to celebrate our diverse community.

"It was wonderful to recognise (award winners) Colleen Weller, Matt Zarb, Circartus and the Club Taree Community Team for their outstanding contribution to our community.''

She said the organisers will meet soon to do the analysis of this year's event. However, Mrs Futterleib called for more support for nominations for the various awards.

"We need people to nominate more individuals and groups for the Australia Day Awards as the number of nominations this year was disappointing,'' she said.

Mrs Futterleib was a victim of the heat and spent the evening in hospital as a result.

"Hospital staff were terrific as were the ambos and FAIM First Aid,'' she said.