Largest citizenship ceremony

Mr Joseph, along with his wife Christy John and their daughter Fiona Mulavana were among the 50 people to become Australian citizens at yesterday’s largest citizenship ceremony to ever be held in Dubbo.

Mr Joseph, who works in IT at Ryde Secondary College in Sydney, said it was a long process to become an Australian citizen, but he went through the extensive paperwork because he wanted to become part of the community.

He and his family are initially from India, but have lived in Dubbo for five years.

“I like the Dubbo community. It’s quiet, people are open minded. People will help if  you ask for help,” Mr Joseph said.

Mrs John, who is a nurse, said Dubbo was also a great place to raise her daughter and she liked the city’s diversity.

Dubbo City Mayor Matthew Dickerson said officially conferring citizenship on the migrants, and seeing their joy at becoming a part of the region, gave him tingles on the back of his neck.

“You get some tough jobs and some hard jobs as mayor, but one of the best is making people Aussies.”

Along with a certificate of citizenship, every recipient was also given Vegemite, a toy koala, a commemorative coin and information booklets about Dubbo.

“I made sure they knew the rules of two-up, Don Bradman’s batting average and how to eat Vegemite,” Councillor Dickerson joked.

Cr Dickerson said it was great to see the families who are now Australian citizens in awe of everything Dubbo has to offer.

“There are a lot of people who have lived here their whole lives, they keep their heads down and complain about how boring it is; they need to lift their heads up and see what these citizens see.”

Citizenship is generally awarded on Australia Day, but Cr Dickerson said, in Dubbo, citizenship ceremonies are held every couple of months so families don’t have to wait to make their home official.

“it’s a  big step to say I’m going to be loyal to another country. These people are coming from Shanghai and Cape Town, and of all places they choose Dubbo.”