sambo76

Hi

I was wondering if you have to have the ceremony at your local council or if you can choose to have it in the city - I live in Sydney and would love the ceremony at Town Hall

Thanks in advance
Sambo

Jilliebee

I'm pretty sure on the Citizenship Application form it asks you to state where you want to do your ceremony x

spottydog

Are you actually living in City of Sydney's council area? If you are then your ceremony will be at Sydney Town Hall, generally you get your citizenship at a ceremony arranged by your local council.

citylan

is having the ceremony at Town Hall really good in terms of how its arranged etc in comparison to other Citizenship ceremonies?

Dorothy

I doubt that many people would have experience of more than one citizenship ceremony.

Pollyana

What are you expecting? Hordes of awed Australians kneeling at your feet and welcoming you to their country?
You turn up at the venue, listen to some speeches, recite the words on the card, and get given a bit of tree and a certificate. Wherever you go is gonna be much the same.

citylan

yeah I was expecting that!!!

No, but seriously wanted to know whether there is any special significance to the Citizenship ceremonies happening at Sydney Town Hall. And what usually is the refreshments? Like is it lunch/dinner or just snacks like biscuits etc.

Pollyana

Refreshments? Well maybe Syndey is more.welcoming than Brisbane, but the refreshments there were 'yeah, pub down on the.corner will serve ya!' and there were so many thousand people at the ceremony that it was like a conveyor belt. I was glad I didn't try and make an 'occasion' of it, certainly wasn't memorable. Hope you have more luck!

spottydog

In Sutherland Shire we had an evening ceremony in Sutherland a Town Hall with a pie and tea/coffee available for us and our guests afterwards.

A friends ceremony in City of a Sydney was an afternoon ceremony in Sydney Town Hall with nothing else.

I guess it depends on what you want. I believe you can go for one of the round up stragglers ceremonies in Sydney if you really want

BritInParis

London does tea, coffee, orange juice, Tim Tams and Anzac biscuits. You also get a free jar of Vegemite and a cuddly Koala with every citizenship certificate. Though it may be a bit of a trek if you're living in Oz

citylan

No, I certainly would fly down to London to have those Anzac biscuits and Tim Tams, makes me feel so nostalgic about having a 'true Australian Citizenship'.

But seriously, I was expecting atleast sandwiches and tea/coffee/juices/cold drinks. They should have allocated atleast some money for the refreshments considering its a big occasion and certainly a memorable one for many of us.

Jilliebee

Ours had party pies with tomato sauce and tea/coffee/fruit juice. There were a couple of hundred people doing their ceremony though so by the time we got to the refreshment stage we just wanted to go home

spouse of scouse

The Council I worked at for 15 years always made a fuss of people at our citizenship ceremonies. Always a nice morning or afternoon tea, or a supper for evening ceremonies. The biggest ceremony was held on Australia Day, and the new Aussies and their families were given vouchers for the local Oz Day in the park breakfast, which was in a lovely park next door to the Council admin centre. At the ceremony, all the kids were given 'show bags' with an Aussie flag and lots of bits and pieces, and the ceremonies themselves had live entertainment.

I've assisted the Mayor at the ceremonies lots of times, and every bloody time I get teary! I just find them really moving occasions.

Bermudashorts

Buy your own tea, coffee and biscuits. Jeez it's not that hard is it?

It will be us this year too and I couldn't give a stuff about the ceremony, I would rather just be in and out, it is entirely a practical step.

Pollyana