Would you like to help shape this year’s Australia Day celebrations?
July 18, 2018
At last Wednesday’s Special Council meeting, Councillors voted to form a new Australia Day Advisory Committee to inform future Council decisions for Colac Otway Shire Australia Day Award recipients and in shaping the event festivities.
In a first for Colac Otway Shire 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.
Mayor Joe McCracken said Colac Otway Shire 2019 Australia Day Award nominations are 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.”
Cr Joe McCracken said development of the new advisory committee was another example of the Council’s commitment to involve community members in more decision making.
“We’ll spend the next few weeks inviting expressions of interest and appointing up to five suitable community representatives to join us on the advisory committee, they’ll help with the award recipients and make sure our Australia Day celebrations reflect community expectations.
“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 opened on July 17 and remain open for four weeks – closing on August 14,” he said.
“The overall committee structure should represent our diverse culture and as such, consideration will be given to the overall make-up of the committee in terms of age, gender, culture and geographic representation across the whole shire.
“The successful candidates will be formally appointed at our Ordinary Council Meeting in August and serve a two year term.”
Council Enquiries
(03) 5232 9400