By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
AS THE Australian flag was raised at Berwick’s Pioneers Park on Sunday, some also raised their mobile phones to capture and later relive the moment.
It is this patriotism that Berwick Rotarian and Casey Councillor Mick Morland sees as the reason why Berwick’s Australia Day Celebration is one of the most popular in the municipality, attracting over 4000 people each year.
It was indeed an extremely large and sun-baked crowd which turned out to celebrate Australia Day for an eighth consecutive year at the park. Amid the costumes, marching band, woodwork and children’s rides, one could find free sunscreen stations dotted throughout the area.
Cr Morland said the Australia Day event, which was run by the Rotary Club of Berwick and supported by the City of Casey, had become one of the premier events in the municipality’s calendar.
“The City of Casey approached the Rotary Club to ask if they would run it for the council, and they get a grant of about three to four thousand. It costs us about $12,000 to $15,000 to run it,” Cr Morland said.
“The guys on the event committee work on it for the whole year.
“We all started work from 7.30 onwards to set it up and by 10am it was all ready for the community.”
An official ceremony to commemorate the day kicked off at 11am at the park rotunda, with a speech from Casey mayor Geoff Ablett and greetings from Edrington Ward councillors Susan Serey and Morland.
Soon after, the crowd shifted to the nearby flagpole where the Australian flag was attached and raised, as the Berwick Youth Choir sang the national anthem and a group of naval cadets saluted.
Cr Ablett said Australia Day gave the people of Casey a moment to reflect on the events that had “shaped” their country, and subsequently their suburb.
“Our city is a snapshot of the world’s communities. We are a nation made up of migrants in a land with a rich and long history that has been home to people since long before we arrived and each of us, regardless of where or how we were born, are equal,” he said.
Mayor Ablett also spoke of the “constantly changing face” of Australian society.
“We all have something that we can conbtribute and we all live in a peaceful and vibrant society for which we can be rightly proud,” he said.
Australia Day ambassador Greg Evans, a former television and radio personality, also addressed the Berwick crowd and paid his respects to the country’s Indigenous community, before reading an old bush poem of unknown origin.
