Greater Shepparton City Council’s support for changing the date Australia Day is celebrated has moved from theory to practice this year, but not everyone has come to the party.
Greater Shepparton has the largest First Nations community in Victoria outside metropolitan Melbourne, and a Survival Day dawn ceremony acknowledging the devastating impacts colonisation has had on Australia’s Indigenous peoples has been held on January 26 since 2021.
In recent years, council has strengthened its support for a change of date for Australia Day.
In October 2022, councillors voted unanimously to advocate for Australia Day to be moved from January 26, the date in 1788 that the First Fleet arrived from Britain, signalling the start of colonisation.
“January 26 is not a day of celebration for our people; it is considered by our people as a day of mourning,” Yorta Yorta Elder and Greater Shepparton’s first Indigenous councillor, Greg James, said at the time.
“This recommendation is an opportunity for us to join in with an increasing movement throughout Australia to eliminate the distress and pain and to make Australia Day a day for me and my people to join in and celebrate with everyone.”
In September 2023, council reinforced that support by voting to replace its Australia Day Small Town Grants Program with a Community Celebration Grants Program that would provide funding for celebrations that fell either side of January 26, from January 23 to 25 or from January 27 to 29.
That decision has now begun to impact local communities and their Australia Day events.
At December’s monthly meeting, councillors noted the Kiwanis Club of Mooroopna ($1500), Dookie and District Development Forum ($750) and Murchison Community Acknowledgement Ceremony ($3000) were all approved under the Community Celebration Grants Program and planned to hold events on dates other than January 26.
The Tatura Australia Day Committee’s application for $3000 in funding was knocked back, though, because its celebration will be held on January 26.
The council has since confirmed that the Murchison event has reverted to its original January 26 date, forgoing funding from the municipality.
A representative from the Murchison committee was unavailable for comment this week.
Speaking after the December meeting last year, Mayor Shane Sali said council still supported the spirit of the Australia Day celebrations, but due to the trauma January 26 represents for the city’s Indigenous people through large-scale loss of land, language and identity, it had taken a stand on the date.
“We always said that we would provide funding, just not on the 26th of January,” he said.
“We still acknowledge that the 26th of January is Australia Day, and when I mean we, the Greater Shepparton City Council, will publicly acknowledge that the 26th of January is Australia’s National Day, and that will be across our socials (social media) and other forms of our external media to acknowledge that that is our national day.
“We just felt that if there were going to be events on that day, that council’s position on it would be not to enhance the celebration by giving funding on that particular day, but we also acknowledge that some really good things happen on Australia Day and that’s community recognition.
“We felt that if those events could take place either side of the 26th of January, we would still provide funding to those community groups to celebrate what makes their region or their small town or community so special, and there has been some funding given to those community groups.”
Council has traditionally held a citizenship ceremony and presented Australia Day awards in Queen’s Gardens in Shepparton on January 26, but this year, both of those will be on January 25.
“All the small towns that would run Australia Day events are still entitled to run Australia Day events; they just wouldn’t be eligible for council funding if they were going to hold it on the 26th of January,” Cr Sali said.
Tatura Australia Day committee president Rod Schubert, who intends to stand for council in this year’s local government election, has described council’s actions as “terrible”.
“Whoever is responsible for this decision, it is disappointing and bordering on shameful, and we as a committee will work hard to fund our celebration, and we will not be bullied by anyone at COGS (City of Greater Shepparton),” he said.
Mr Schubert said the Tatura committee was launched in 1975, and council had supported the town’s Australia Day celebrations for more than 25 years.
“Following us conducting a survey of many of the local service (and other) clubs, businesses, and much of the population within the township of Tatura, there was an overwhelming opinion, regardless of council’s decision, that we must hold our event on the actual Australia Day: January 26th,” he said.
“We did consider other options, including changing the day of celebration; however, given the ‘mood’ of the residents of Tatura, the Australia Day committee voted unanimously to hold the celebration on the 26th of January, 2024.“
Council confirmed that Tatura and Murchison would organise their own Australia Day events on January 26 and it would not fund those events.
“Greater Shepparton community members can acknowledge this day however they choose,” Cr Sali said.
“We know many community members celebrate and value this day highly. At the same time, we also know that the day causes deep hurt among many of our First Nations community.”