City of Rockingham Council is the latest council to reinstate Australia Day celebrations to 26 January 26, after a vote this week.
The new vote followed the completion of a community survey that revealed more than half of respondents supported a return of events to 26 January.
At its September Ordinary meeting, Councillors voted in favour of holding any future Australia Day celebrations, including Citizenship ceremonies, on 26 January.
This decision reverses a decision made in February 2023 that supported holding Australia Day events on the Saturday nearest to 26 January.
“This decision was guided by the results of a statistically valid survey, conducted by an independent research consultancy, which sought the opinion of community members about their preferred date for Australia Day events,” the Council said in a statement.
“The survey was sent to 10,000 randomly selected community members – 5,000 by email, 5,000 by post.”
Council said the survey found:
- 63.6% of respondents preferred 26 January (Australia Day) as the date to hold Australia day events;
- 26.7% preferred the nearest Saturday to 26 January (or Sunday 27 January if 26 January is a Saturday);
- 9.6% had no preference.
