Colac Otway seeks input on Australia Day event

THE Colac Otway Shire is reaching out to the community to help shape Australia Day festivities for next year and into the future.

At last week’s special council meeting, councillors voted to form a new Australia Day Advisory Committee.

In a first for the council, five community representatives will join all seven councillors to form the new advisory committee.

The new committee will work with councillors in establishing the future direction of the event and choosing Australia Day Award recipients.

Shire mayor Joe McCracken said Australia Day Award nominations for 2019 were now open and the committee would play an important role in assessing recipients of Australia Day honours.

“One of the key tasks of this committee will be to assess award applicants and have a say in who in our community should receive the honours.”

He said development of the new advisory committee was another example of the council’s commitment to involve community members in more decision making.

“Moving forward the community representatives will also help with the selection of the host towns, but the timing may be a bit tight for that for this coming Australia Day.”

He said anyone who had a passion for Australia Day, who had strong links with the community and was interested in event management should consider applying for one of the five community vacancies.

Expressions of interest close on August 14.

At the same meeting, the shire noted no expressions of interest had been received from community groups to host the 2019 Australia Day celebrations. Councillors then resolved that the event would be held in Apollo Bay.

According to the report presented to councillors, discussions with a number of community groups revealed “the main reasons behind the lack of interest was due to volunteer resources being tied up with other projects/events and growing sensitivity around January 26 and what the day means to the Traditional Owners of the land”.