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Australia Day Awards The Cootamundra Gundagai Regionals Council discussed the Australia Day awards at Tuesday night’s Council meeting. Council advised that they support the submission of an application for funding for local Australia Day 2021 activities, from the $500,000 Australia Day 2021 event branding grants program. Council also recommended staff further investigate the viability of Council applying for funding from the $7.5 million Australia Day 2021 COVID safe Events grant program. |
Council proposes to present its annual Australia Day Awards on Tuesday 26th January 2021, at two distinct ceremonies: one to be held in Cootamundra and one to be held in Gundagai. Residents will be encouraged to nominate their fellow residents for Australia Day Awards for the following categories: 1. Citizen of the Year, 2. Young Citizen of the Year, 3. Sportsperson of the Year / Sports Achievement Award.
Nominations are to be in writing (by letter, or on the form available from Council Offices and website) and received by Council no later than Friday 20th November 2020. This will allow for timely consideration and selection of Awardees at the November 2020 Ordinary Meeting of Council.
Council has registered to be part of the Australia Day Ambassador Program and will be allocated an ambassador for each location. Council staff will contact Community representatives who have previously assisted with planning and preparation of Australia Day celebrations and request their assistance for the 2021 Celebrations.
The National Australia Day Council, with the support of the Commonwealth government, has developed $8 million in grants across two packages to assist the local government sector deliver Australia Day events in 2021. The program, to be delivered in collaboration with the Australia Day Council of NSW comprises: 1. $7.5 million Australia Day 2021 COVID safe Events Grants.
Open to the Australia Day network, local councils and not-for-profit organisations, these grants will provide $20,000 to help make Australia Day 2021 events COVID safe.
The grants will help fund resources and services to ensure events meet the relevant state and territory requirements for COVID safe events.
The grant will be open to all existing and new Australia Day events. A requirement of the grant includes the conditions that councils who ran an Australia Day event in 2020 financially invest at least the same amount in 2021 (this does not include contra and sponsorship arrangements) and be able to demonstrate how the grant will be used to ensure the event will be COVID safe.
The second pool of funding contains $500,000 Australia Day 2021 event branding grants.
To help with the planning of Australia Day 2021, each council will be able to access Australia Day-branded Reflect. Respect. Celebrate artwork, including banners, bunting, posters, tablecloths and napkins. To assist with the production of these branded materials, councils can apply for a $1,000 grant to have the items produced locally to support local businesses and jobs. If councils do not have local provider, they can use the grant to purchase the materials from the Australia Day Council of South Australia.