The fun starts at Dubbo at 7am in Victoria Park with a free barbecue breakfast cooked by Macquarie Rotary Club and entertainment provided by the Dubbo and District Concert Band.

The official ceremony starts at 8am and includes a citizenship ceremony and the presentation of the Australia Day Awards.

After the ceremony finishes the fun doesn’t stop with displays from the RFDS, NSW Fire and Rescue, the zoo, activities for the kids and free entry to the pool from 10am to 12pm.

For Wellington the fun starts at 9am in Cameron Park with a free breakfast provided by the Wellington Rotary Club, live entertainment from the Wellington Town Band, Milly Mill and Ken Blackburn and activities for the kids including a jumping castle. The official ceremony starts at 10am and the 2016 Citizen of the Year Noel Grimes and Miss Wellington Showgirl, Jane Brien will be presenting awards.

There will also be free admission to the Wellington Pool between 11am and 1pm.

Myself and our Australia Day Ambassador, Paralympian Amanda Reid, will be giving official addresses at both the Dubbo and Wellington celebrations.

Ms Reid made her international swimming debut at just age 14 when she won seven gold medals at the 2011 Global Games in Italy and continued her swimming success at the London 2012 Paralympic Games where she was fifth in the 100metre breaststroke. She then turned her considerable talent to track cycling and after only a few months she broke an Australian Para-cycling record, an Australian record and won a gold medal at the 2015 Australian Para-cycling Championships. Last year she achieved another career high when, at the age of 19, she posted a personal best time to claim the silver medal in the C1-2-3 500m time trial at the Paralympic Games in Rio.

If anyone would like to meet with Ms Reid she is available before the Dubbo ceremony from 7.30am and after the Wellington Ceremony from 11am.

It was great news for motorists with the reopening of the Dripstone Bridge on the Burrendong Way. The old bridge only had a 10 tonne load limit meaning a 40 kilometre detour was needed for heavy vehicles especially livestock freight. The project received $1.05 million in funding under the NSW Government’s Restart NSW Fixing Country Roads program and Member for Dubbo Troy Grant and Dubbo Regional Council Interim General Manager David Dwyer cut the ribbon on the new bridge this week.

Economic development in Wellington has been a major focus of the newly merged council and the results are already beginning to show. We have already implemented tourism initiatives such as the Rhino Adventure Trail and Wellington Tourist and New Residents Guide with reports of many people stopping in town during the Christmas break to get a photo with the Rhino sculpture in Cameron Park. Funding commitments for the Wellington Caves, Cameron Park and Wellington Pool will ensure the assets essential to maintaining and promoting quality of life in Wellington are the best they can be. Council has a dedicated Economic Development Project Officer at Wellington and has also employed two full-time rangers based in the town.

The Swimming NSW Country Regional meet will be held at the Wellington Pool on the 28th and 29th of January. The pool will be closed to the public during this time but if you need to cool off over the weekend the Geurie pool will be open as usual.