Cade Lucas
As the fastest growing local government area in the country and one of its most multicultural, Wyndham is used to welcoming new arrivals, but now many are becoming Australian citizens too.
Nearly 7000 residents became citizens between January and April this year, after Wyndham council increased citizenship ceremonies to clear a backlog created during Covid.
25 citizenship ceremonies were held over the period including three so-called ‘Super Ceremony Days’ which granted 500 citizenships each.
Wyndham Mayor Susan McIntyre said by the end of last year more than 5000 people were waiting to become citizens.
“We understand how important citizenship is to our community and we recognised
that the wait time was a significant issue.
So, we responded to that need to ensure that citizenship ceremonies happen promptly,” Cr McIntyre said.
Ceremonies were held on weekdays and weekends at three different venues, the Wyndham Civic Centre, Encore Events Centre and the Wyndham Cultural Centre.
Wyndham council plans to have held 32 ceremonies and conferred more than 8000 new citizens by the end of this month.
The next ceremony day will be held during Refugee Week at Encore Events Centre on June 19.
More information is available at www.wyndham.vic.gov.au/about-council/your-
council/australian-citizenship-ceremonies
