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Latrobe City wins ‘Best Australia Day’ event awardLatrobe City Council has won the ‘Best Australia Day’ event award for a regional or suburban area and was presented with a trophy celebrating their win by the Australia Day Committee (Victoria) on Monday. By Latrobe City Council - 16th August 2005 - Back to News "We were absolutely thrilled to receive this award," Latrobe City Mayor, Councillor Bruce Lougheed said. "However, it needs to be recognised that this is not an award to Council as such, but an award presented to our entire community. It is the whole Latrobe community that should take pride in receiving this award," Cr Lougheed said.
The Australia Day trophies for regional activities on Australia Day were instituted in 2003 and were intended to acknowledge excellence in the delivery of Australia Day events.
The Committee also looks at good planning and innovative thinking in determining programs for all the community to enjoy, as well as whether an event is able to be modelled for other municipalities to adopt.
"They also consider whether events were effective at engaging the community and in Latrobe City’s case, the Committee awarded the trophy for variety, excellence and inclusivity," Cr Lougheed explained.
Cr Lougheed added that the Committee was particularly impressed by the many locations within the City that offered free Australia Day events.
"The Committee commented that they had been particularly impressed with the ‘mega band’ performance featuring many community bands at the ‘Sounds of Australia’ concert held at Kernot Hall, Morwell.
"They also made particular mention to the level of community support for the events, both financial and in kind support, as well as community participation. They also noted the strong promotion of Australia Day events within the community through the media and other means," Cr Lougheed said.
General Manager City Relations, Mark Brady, said that Latrobe City proudly supported Australia Day activities throughout the municipality by sponsoring community celebrations, events and civic functions with the aim of lifting the profile of Australia Day within the community.
"The winning application required gathering information on participation rates, events, budget management, promotion and publicity. The statistics showed that Latrobe City had over 14,600 people attending events over the Australia Day weekend – with participation rates at community breakfasts up by 45%," Mr Brady explained.
"A feature event was the ‘Sounds of Australia’, Australia Day Awards and Citizenship Ceremony Civic Function. The day included presentation of Australia Day Awards for Citizen, Young Citizen and Community Event of the Year and Naturalisation Ceremony.
"The proceedings were enhanced by wonderful music provided by the Latrobe City Youth Band, City of Traralgon Band, Morwell Caledonian Band and Morwell Citizens Band. For the finale all bands joined in a combined ‘Mega Band’ performance," Mr Brady said.
"As well as the community breakfasts and flagraising ceremonies across the municipality, Latrobe City opened the outdoor pools free of charge and organised the Big Wave Concert-Tsunami Appeal at Victory Park in Traralgon," Mr Brady added.
Cr Lougheed said that there were many other activities and events across Latrobe City at sporting and community clubs.
"In all, Latrobe City residents had plenty of opportunities to wave the flag on Australia Day, and to receive this trophy is a fine accolade for all the hard work, dedication and effort put in by staff, community groups and businesses around the municipality," Cr Lougheed concluded.
Source: www.gippsland.com Published by: news@gippsland.com

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