Community gathers to celebrate Australia

ANNUAL Australia Day celebrations by the Anglesea River drew a crowd of hundreds in what was one of the Surf Coast’s largest events of its kind on January 26.

As the local Lions club ferried children in train rides beside the river, organisers estimated 300 others watched, listened, and sung along to a range of speakers and musicians, including Indigenous academic and commentator Anthony Dillon.

“People say Australia Day is divisive day, the point I want to make is days aren’t divisive, people are divisive,” Mr Dillon said.

“People can have different opinions, there’s nothing wrong with that, there’s nothing wrong with disagreements, but respect other people, respect others to have a different opinion.”

He said it was his wish that people could come together for a national day that focuses on positivity, rather than negativity.

“When I look at place like this, Anglesea, we’re here united, we’re happy… it’s an imperfect country, but it’s still a great country.

“We’re not celebrating invasion, theft or whatever, we’re acknowledging that; that happened. But we’re celebrating what a great country Australia is.”

Crowd favourite and coast resident Mike Brady wore both his musical and Australia Day ambassador hats and spoke of his deep affection for the country he has called home since arriving from England as a boy in the late 1950s.

“Of course values have changed, and for the better,” he said.

The musician later spoke of the crossover history between First Nations People and Europeans when introducing his song about convict William Buckley, who lived for 32 years with the Wathaurong people of the region.

Anglesea Lions Club member and organiser Jim Tutt said he was pleased with how the morning had run.

“From the way the crowds reacted here today, a whole feeling of what Australia Day is… respect and coordination and co-operation, and the people here I think have really gone with that,” he said.

“If the dates changed by the government, well we’ll go with that. We need a day that is about the building of Australia, from all types of backgrounds and countries and creeds.

“That’s the theme that we would try to perpetuate, how the country has developed because of that enrichment of people with different castes and backgrounds.”