97 Aussies welcomed at Bendigo citizenship ceremony

The moving ceremony was held at the Ulumbarra Theatre with the 97 new citizens from 21 countries joined by their friends and families to mark the occasion.

The event featured a welcome to country from Djaara woman Rebecca Phillips, and speeches from newly crowned Citizen of the Year Heather Wearne and Minister for Citizenship Andrew Giles read out by Bendigo MP Lisa Chesters.

Maiden Gully nurse and mother of two Nomusa Napier said it had been a long journey to become an Australia citizen.

Ms Napier was born in Zimbabwe and moved to New Zealand in 2003 to study nursing.

After her husband passed away. she decided to move to Australia to raise her two sons.

"I thought Australia had better opportunities for myself and my boys," she said.

She said as a non-citizen she had been paying domestic fees of about $14,000 to put her youngest son through university.

"It was costing me, unfortunately, raising them as a single mom and then trying to pay for their fees," she said.

"I was praying to get the citizenship today."

Ms Napier said Bendigo had become her home and it was "amazing" she could surround herself with loved ones.

With a background in mental health nursing and having overcome her own battles, she said she knew the value of connectedness.

"I lost my husband and I raised kids as a single mom and having community and family, it's part of recovery," she said.

"When you don't have family around you, so the trauma, the grief, everything, it becomes hard, but when you have your family... the grief is there, but it feels better because you can talk to them."

The communities Ms Napier has been a part of had become her family, she said.

"Community to me is everyone around me.

"We are a beautiful community in terms of people from my country and other communities as well.

"My workmates becomes my family, I worked in the [Loddon Prison] for about eight years, those prison officers, those nurses there became family as well.

"Family is not just blood, family is the whole thing."

For Denise Bailie, who was born in the United Kingdom but has lived in Australia for more than 40 years, becoming a citizen was a decision sparked by COVID-19 lockdowns.

Ms Bailie was with her husband, who had an Australian passport, in South America when COVID-19 lockdown measures prevented non-citizens from returning home.

"As I arrived at the airport with my British passport and my husband had his Australian passport, he was allowed on the flight to go back via America and I had trouble with my British passport," she said.

"It wasn't until I had to get a plane home that I suddenly realized I needed an Australian passport."

Ms Bailie said she felt emotional to be part of Bendigo's ceremony.

"I just love our multiculturalism, I loved hearing the stories. Everyone's got a story for why they're here," she said.

La Trobe University associate professors Carina Chan and Simon Egerton said they decided to become citizens when they had their child Veronica.

"Neither of us was an Australian [permanent resident] when we had our child, although she was born in Australia, she's not an Australian citizen," Ms Chan said.

"We really wanted to do this as a family. Australia is our home because that's where we all are."

Ms Chan said the "multicultural nature" of Australia was something they were proud of.

"There is a lot that migrants can bring to the country. We would love to contribute to the country; we love it here."