DID ya ramemba Ostrayla Day? Yes we have, for it falls during the northern Australian ‘wet’ season.
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Since 1981, Mount Isa, along with the rest of the nation, celebrated the first formalised Australia Day in true Aussie spirit albeit a wet one.
After months of dry weather the heavens opened to joyous cries when Mayor Franz Born went through the flag raising and naturalisation ceremonies, on the Civic Centre lawns, all the while smiling as rain fell.
But no one minded the inconvenience of getting a little wet on that first occasion; rather Mayor Born was congratulated for bringing forth a break to the extended drought.
And later that evening, the catchment waters gushed down the dry bed of the Leichhardt River to even greater revelry, giving Australia Day 1981 a special place in local records.
With his moniker of Australia Day Rainmaker, Mayor Born, was praying for the torrential rains to stop, in 1984, when the State Government’s hand was forced to declare Mount Isa a natural disaster area, necessitating all celebrations to be cancelled.
Rain notwithstanding, it has always been a joy to see the proud smiles on people who pledge their allegiance to our country during the Australia Day Naturalisation Ceremony.
Visiting Mount Isa in 1959, Archbishop Ezekiel, of the Greek Orthodox Church, said the love Greeks had for their home country should not cause them to hold back their love for their new country.
“You are not Greeks living in Australia, but Australians of Greek origin,” he said.
And the same sentiments hold true of all immigrants who have chosen to become naturalised Australians.
From that first formal Australia Day in 1981, there has been great anticipation to hear who have been the recipients of the citizenship awards (senior and junior) together with the sportsperson’s award and more recently the local legend.
For once Fred Frost, local identity, sportsman and radio entertainer, was speechless when he accepted the 1997 senior citizen of the year in recognition of his contribution to sport (cricket) and the community; notably his editorship of the ground breaking satirical newspaper, The No Where Steer.
The first recipient of the local legend honour went to Pat Fennel, local author, poet, businesswoman, pastoralist and rural women’s advocate.
In 1996 the top award was given to husband and wife team, David and Toni Neville for their ongoing contribution to the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
However, Australia Day celebrations have not been without controversy when in 1987 the local festivities made national headlines, for what Tasmanian Aborigine elder Michael Mansell said was a truly sorry day when his fellow Aborigines saw fit to participate in Mount Isa’s Australia Day event.
He was alluding to the local Australia Day Multicultural Festival that encompassed performances by members of the Ethnic Council and the Welwon Dance Groups of Weswick Station (near Katherine NT) together with the Kalkadunga Tribal Group showcasing their unique dancing skills.
They effectively became the first Aboriginals to take part in a formal Australia Day event.
As Jimmy von Senden from the Kalkadunga Tribal Dance Group said, “We’re not too sure what sort of effect it (the participation in Australia Day Celebrations) is going to have on other Aboriginal people.”
“I think that too many times Aboriginal people have not participated in things they could have.
“I think it’s time people forgot the past and the reasons they won’t participate.”
Sadly, the goodwill exhibited by the Welwon Dance Group and the Kalkadunga Tribal Group in 1987 was left out to dry the following year when the Kalkadoon Tribal Council and the Aboriginal Community Support Group declared January 26 a day of mourning and held a sit-down protest on the lawns of the Civic Centre.
However, the silence of the protesting minority was soon drown out as Alex Biondi, a proud local Aboriginal man and legendary rugby league stalwart received the highest accolade on the day, as Mount Isa’s Australia Day Citizen of the Year Award for 1988.
In 1991, Australia Day festivities continued into the night with the first rugby league game played under lights, at Alex Inch Park.
The match was an entertaining affair with Mount Isa giving the visiting Newcastle Knights a good tackle for its money.
But no Australia Day would be complete without the Queen’s honours list.
One of the early honourees was George Beard (co-founder of Playtime) who was awarded the Australia Medal for his work with ex-prisoners of World War Two; in particular those who, like himself, survived the horrific indignities of the Burma Railway and Changi prison in Singapore.
Later in 1992, local solicitor and Rotarian, Laurie Evans, found it difficult not to shout from his beloved rodeo grounds at Kalkadoon Park, that he had been awarded the Medal of the Order in the General Division (OAM) for his services to the community.
A year later, Kathy Swift was named citizen of the year, in recognition of her tireless work for the Leukaemia Foundation.
Then in 1997, she was awarded the Order of Australia honour in the general division on the same year Alvin Hava received the Mount Isa junior citizenship award.
Echoing the sentiment of Archbishop Ezekiel forty years earlier, MP for Mount Isa, Bill Price, said in his Australia Day speech, “People making Australia and indeed Mount Isa their home, should become Australians.”
“Australia needs the cultures and histories of other lands to advance into the future.”
Australia Day is a day to celebrate not only this great land we all live in, but our true blue pride in just being ‘Aussies’ together.
Did ya sellabrate Ostrayla Day?
Researched and written by Kim-Maree Burton www.kimmareeburton.com
Photographs supplied by North Queensland History Collection and the North West Star.
Information sourced from the archives of the the North West Star.
History talks are the 1st Saturday of the month at the Mount Isa Library. Phone 4747 3350.