For many, Australia Day is about the awards ceremonies.
It is about seeing who our outstanding citizens are in the community.
Those people who have been doing great things in the past year, especially — and for many, much longer than that — and celebrating them.
However, for Oddie, there is another matter of great importance, and that is the food on offer at Australia Day gatherings.
For most small towns, sausages and bacon and egg rolls are the staple at these sort of events.
If you are lucky, there are cakes of some sort.
Oddie’s colleagues attended Australia Day events throughout the region this year, and reported back on the treats on offer.
Journalist Monique Preston headed to Tatura where there were bacon and egg rolls for breakfast before the formalities of the day.
Sadly, she wasn’t there earlier enough to taste test one herself.
After the ceremony, however, lamingtons and sandwiches were served for morning tea, and she said the lamingtons were among the best she had ever tasted.
Bravo Tatura!
Another of Oddie’s journalist colleagues, who wishes to remain anonymous because of her untidy eating habits, which saw onion on her shirt and a bit of sausage fall below a car seat, picked up a snag at the Shepparton Australia Day event.
Importantly, it came with onions — on top, where they rightfully should be.
Also in the offing were hamburgers with coleslaw, and lamingtons, but she did not have a chance to try everything.
Another of Oddie’s colleagues, Country News journalist and barbecue connoisseur Geoff Adams, thinks the sausages at Strathbogie were gourmet.
And there was steak!
And it was free!
However, with his farming hat off for the day, he didn’t ask if it was Angus or Hereford steak.
Arnold the kelpie cross dog, who was also at that ceremony, wasn’t quite sure about the spice in the sausage and initially spat it out.
He is being trained to be a truffle-sniffing dog and we are not sure if the oversensitivity to smell may be a reason for the initial rejection of the aforementioned sausages.
He did, however, finish it off later, so it must have been okay.
The humans, on the other hand, all chowed down on their sausages with gusto.
It is interesting to note Strathbogie is a former merino growing district well known for producing fine quality merino wool — there is even a statue of a sheep in the main street — but there was no lamb on the barbie on Australia Day.
Maybe we should report this to Australian ‘lambassador’ Sam Kekovich.
Would they qualify to be part of his next Australia Day lamb ad, perhaps?