Australia Day was one of new babies, new citizens and thousands of people soaking up the sun and activity near the water in Wollongong, Shellharbour and Kiama on Saturday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The day started with Wollongong’s first Australia Day baby Hunter George Briggs arriving at Wollongong Private Hospital just after the clock struck midnight.
Hunter was not due until Valentine’s Day but wasn’t waiting and came just one hour before Wollongong Public Hospital welcomed its first baby for the national day.
Parents Melissa and Adam Briggs, of Bulli, were not expecting their first child to arrive early until things changed on Friday.
“I was out shopping at Stockland Shellharbour and felt like I was starting to get small contractions,” Mrs Briggs said.
Mr Briggs rushed back from his job in radiotherapy at Royal North Shore Hospital to be with his wife who works in the pathology lab at Wollongong Public Hospital. She headed to hospital around 6pm and Hunter arrived six hours later.
“It is wonderful to have him on Australia Day. It definitely wasn’t expected but we are very happy he arrived when he did at 3.05 kilos and 49cms,” Mrs Briggs said.
The couple met as undergraduates at University of Wollongong and were were busy telling family about their happy news when they received an unexpected visit from Wollongong City Council’s Australia Day committee’s Robyn Hampton.
She arrived just hours after Hunter was born to present the young family with a bouquet of flowers, a bottle of champagne, an early savers account, a gift pack, Australian flag, a cup and engraved spoon with an encryption noting how Hunter was the first child born in Wollongong on Australia Day, 2019.
Mrs Hampton has delivered such gifts from the committee and Wollongong Lord Mayor Cr Gordon Bradbery for the last 21 years.
And while she was doing that the Cr Bradbery was at Wollongong Town Hall conducting the citizenship ceremony for new Australian citizens in Wollongong.
Among them were Ahm Mehbub Anwar, Ramin Tihami, Tuhran Tihami and Ismat Ara.
“This is a very special day for us and we are very happy. We can now say we are Australian,” Mr Anwar said.
This is a very special day for us and we are very happy
- Ahm Mehbub Anwar
He came to Australia to study at University of Wollongong in 2010. He finished doing his PhD in 2013. His original plan was to return to Bangladesh in 2014.
But with his oldest son starting school in Wollongong and good medical services the family sort permanent residency in 2016. After that was granted their dream was to become Australian citizens together.
“We are feeling really special because this is a very big day for us. Now we can say with other Australians that this is our home. We are celebrating with some really nice food. We love this country”.
Mr Anwar lives in Wollongong and commutes to Sydney daily to work for the NSW Department of Transport.
“I like Wollongong. It is such a good place to live”.
Read more:
