Melbourne Cup backed for day off

FOR the next four years, residents and workers of the Golden Plains Shire will take Melbourne Cup Day as its municipally gazetted public holiday.

The Shire received eligible feedback from 95 community members on the issue from February to April, with 44 people approving of Melbourne Cup Day.

Cr Owen Sharkey said the word ‘consistency’ stood out to him throughout the consultation period.

“In communities in the middle of our Shire… we had a teacher say it’s difficult to have different holidays less than 10 kilometres away, and that consistency is best for families,” he said.

“Meredith residents said ‘consistency,’ and we had a Rokewood resident ask for consistency, after last year where the kinder had Ballarat Cup Day and the school had Melbourne Cup Day.”

Mr Sharkey said the public holiday debate “largely affects the business community.”

Cr Clayton Whitfield said “several business owners” he’d spoken to prefer Melbourne Cup Day.

“Tuesday is traditionally a slower trading day than the Friday that they would be taking off for a Show Day. It has an economic affect on businesses,” he said.

Forty residents were willing to partake in a part-shire arrangement, taking Geelong and Ballarat Show Day, while only 10 were willing to make Geelong and Ballarat Cup Day.

Five submissions wished to mirror the City of Ballarat who are taking Melbourne Cup Day as a public holiday, rather than Ballarat Show Day.

Unless a regional local government area organises otherwise, municipalities in Victoria tend to take Melbourne Cup Day off.

In the last 10 years, the Shire’s north has taken November’s Ballarat Show Day, and October’s Geelong Show Day has been the south’s holiday.