News

Fes­tiv­i­ties kicked off with the return of the Aus­tralia Day Fun Run, with locals get­ting into the spir­it as they ran, walked and cycled around the icon­ic Todd Riv­er in their best Aussie outfits.

Direct­ly after the Fun Run, Alice Springs wel­comed 70 new res­i­dents from a diverse range of coun­tries includ­ing Bangladesh, Cameroon, Colom­bia, France, Ger­many, India, South Korea, Nepal, New Zealand, Nige­ria, Pak­istan, Philip­pines, Por­tu­gal, South Sudan, Sri Lan­ka, Sudan, Unit­ed King­dom, Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca and Zambia.

“I often say that wel­com­ing new cit­i­zens to our com­mu­ni­ty is one of the most spe­cial things you can do as May­or, and today that’s par­tic­u­lar­ly true,” May­or Matt Pater­son said.

“See­ing the smile on the faces of our new res­i­dents as they are wel­comed to their new home, on our nation­al day, fills me with a great deal of pride. I can’t imag­ine there’s a more spe­cial place for such an occa­sion than right here in the heart of our country.”

Fol­low­ing the Cit­i­zen­ship Cer­e­mo­ny, May­or Pater­son announced the win­ners of the 2025 Cen­tralian Awards. The 2025 award recip­i­ents are:

2025 Cen­tralian Cit­i­zen­ship Awards recipients:

Cen­tralian Cit­i­zen of the Year – Jeanette and Peter Gur­rie Cen­tralian Young

Cit­i­zen of the Year – Armani Francois

Cen­tralian Senior Cit­i­zen of the Year – Jovi­ta Price

Stu­dents of the Year – Her­cules Jones, Emma Vaka­po­ra, Joel Con­nell, Gurasees Kuar and Kay­lah La

Com­mu­ni­ty Event of the Year – 2024 West Macs Monster

“We know that our com­mu­ni­ty is full of tremen­dous peo­ple. The win­ners of the 2025 Cen­tralian Cit­i­zen­ship awards exem­pli­fy what is tru­ly great about our com­mu­ni­ty,” May­or Matt Pater­son said.

“They share a com­mon trait of putting the joy of oth­ers before them­selves and they make our town a bet­ter place. I would like to offer a heart­felt con­grat­u­la­tions to the 2025 award win­ners and say thank you for all that you do. I would also like to acknowl­edge and say thank you to all nom­i­nees across all categories.”

Alice Springs Town Coun­cil extends a spe­cial thank you to Girl Guides Alice Springs, Apex Club of Cen­tral Aus­tralia, Emer­gency Ser­vices of Alice Springs, Bren­den Heenan and the Alice Springs Town Band for their sup­port on the day.