Celebrations to mark Australia Day on Friday, 26th January 2007 are well underway. Palerang Council is co-ordinating activities in each of the three main towns in our area and is working with local community groups to make the day a success.
Each year, the Australia Day Council of NSW invites high achieving men and women to join in celebrations throughout the State as Australia Day Ambassadors. They may be sporting heroes, celebrities, writers, artists, business people, environmentalists, scientists or community workers.
All Ambassadors have two things in common: a love of Australia and a willingness to give up their time. They too gain from participating in Australia Day events by experiencing the warm and welcoming nature of communities throughout NSW. Importantly though, Ambassadors are invited to add meaning to local celebrations by delivering the keynote address on Australia Day.
This year, Palerang Council is fortunate to have two outstanding Ambassadors attending the celebrations. They are sure to add a most interesting highlight to this important Day.
Matt Levy, an Athens 2004 Paralympian swimmer, will be the special guest at the Braidwood Australia Day event commencing at midday. Matt is 18 years old and has been swimming for 10 years, and competitively for 5 years. He started swimming to improve his health and his main events are the 50m, 100m and 400m freestyle. He has swum competitively in Spain, Canada, China, USA and Athens when, in 2004, he gained two 5th placings and one 8th placing in the Paralympics. Matt has won many medals in other national and international swimming meets and is currently ranked in the top 5 in the world in his respective events.
Stuart Maunder, Artistic Director of Opera Australia, who will be the special guest at Captains Flat in the morning and again later in the afternoon at Bungendore. Stuart has directed for all the major opera companies in his native Australia. Moving to the UK in 1991, he combined a career in Australia with engagements in the UK, Europe and the USA. He was Artistic Administrator of Opera Australia from 1999 until 2003, and then became Executive Producer in January 2004. His most recent production is the world premiere of the new musical "Dusty" which performs across Australia in 2006.
Each event in Palerang will feature the presentation of civic awards. There are three awards for each area, these being the Citizen of the Year, the Young Citizen of the Year and the Community Event of the Year. Many nominations have been received, all of a very high standard, and it will be the difficult job of each sub-committee to select the winners.
Australia Day gives us all the opportunity to acknowledge those who have made outstanding contributions to our local community in the past twelve months. Why not come along and join in the celebrations. They start at Captains Flat at 10am, Braidwood at midday and Bungendore at 3pm.
For full details of the program, please see the advertisement elsewhere in this paper. For further information and any enquiries, please contact Council's Manager of Executive Services, Debby Ferguson, on 1300 735 025 during business hours.
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