This masthead has received much praise for the Australia Day speech given by Member for Euroa Annabelle Cleeland, along with her endless community support during the Longwood bushfire. There have been numerous requests to print the speech in full, and it is a speech which celebrates and thanks many - but not all - of those who have given so much. Ms Cleeland lost all but her house on her family's sheep farm. Today is a day when we pause and reflect on what it truly means to be Australian. And for our community, coming off the back of the Longwood bushfire, that question feels incredibly personal. When we think about the devastation of the past few weeks, it would be easy to focus only on what has been lost. More than 230 homes, more than 500 sheds and buildings, around 15,000 livestock lost or injured, and communities devastated overnight. The fabric of a region forever changed. And a life lost. Those numbers matter. The grief behind them matters, and we should never diminish the scale of that loss. But Australia Day also asks something more of us. It asks us not just to reflect on what we have endured, but on who we are when it matters most. Because alongside what we have lost, we have seen something powerful. We have seen the very best of the Australian spirit. Within hours of the fire on Friday 9 January, just a fortnight ago, it became clear that waiting was not an option; the Tubb family understood that if the community did not act, an emergency could quickly become a catastrophe. They opened their property and worked relentlessly for two weeks, helping facilitate the delivery of more than two and a half million dollars’ worth of fodder with one simple aim. Keep stock alive. Keep farmers going. And when I think about what it means to be Australian, people like Neil, Kerrie, Alistair, and Sarah Tubb come immediately to mind. So do people like Ed Mercer, who lost so much himself, yet spent weeks protecting others. And Micah, who lost his family home as a three year old in the Black Saturday bushfires, and who now, in his early twenties, left Kinglake the day after this fire with nothing but a swag and his dog, camping at Ruffy to help rebuild a community not his own. We saw Alison and Justin Charlesworth throw everything they had into coordinating shipping containers and donations. We saw Steve Tobin become a megaphone for the community, not for recognition, but because he knew help was needed and he wasn’t afraid to keep asking until it arrived. And we saw the Aussie hay runners. Complete strangers loading trailers, driving through the night, crossing state lines, and turning generosity into action so stock could survive. Behind those loads were stories that say everything about who we are. Miles and Aiden, two young blokes doing more deliveries than most, pushing heavy rolls off by hand where tractors were gone. Truck drivers hauling full loads from Deniliquin and refusing to even fill up their tanks, so more support could go to those who needed it. A farmer with the most surviving cattle asking for just one or two rolls, because he didn’t want to be greedy. And a bloke who finished work in Traralgon, drove through the night to deliver hay, then turned around and went straight back home. We watched Matt Tennant see damaged roads and broken access and simply get in and fix them. We saw Steph Swift and Jacqui Thomson arrive in Ruffy with clothes and boots so people could rebuild with dignity. We saw bakeries, cafés, the IGA and small businesses across the region feeding volunteers, even while their own businesses were impacted. We saw Ricki Shiner turn pre-season training into chainsaws and log lifting, and Jean Hamilton and her army of cooks feed firefighters for two straight weeks. We saw Charmaine Beggs and Skip quietly keep turning up. We saw Kirrily and David McCombe of Petrostar supply fuel hour after hour, trusting the community would make it right, because Australians always do. We saw Euroa Rotary and Euroa Lions, given one day’s notice, simply say 'yes'. We saw Shorty, Sam Lewis and Susie Bate ring and ask one question. What do we need? And then quietly get on with it. We saw leadership in its truest form through Scott Jeffrey, the Mayor of Strathbogie, who spent five straight days on the back of a CFA truck defending homes, before stepping straight into advocating for the region without even a proper night’s sleep. Firefighters fought the fire, then came back as volunteers. Driving trucks. Loading fodder. Rebuilding fences. Clearing trees while we mourned what was lost. People stopped working, put their own financial security aside, and showed up for someone else. Police worked calmly and tirelessly to keep people safe. And my sister, Clementine, built a charitable response for our region, all while her own property burned. Our region kept moving when phones were down, when water ran out, when nothing felt certain. Council staff gave up holidays and family time, working day and night. Parents held children close and tried to find words for shock and grief. And the kindness shown by people beyond our region will never be forgotten. There are so many people I need to acknowledge. A simple thank you feels too small, but the memory of what you did will stay with us. And this is where the story shifts. These are not extraordinary people because of who they are. They are extraordinary because of what they did. They are ordinary Australians. And this is what Australia Day is about. Today we rightly recognise individuals through awards, and those awards matter. But after what this community has lived through, there are simply too many heroes to name. A mighty fire tore through our region, through homes and livelihoods. But it did not break us. We will rebuild, we will be stronger for it. Because resilience, generosity and service are not exceptions in this country: they are who we are. Driving here today, you can already see it. Green shoots pushing through blackened ground. No rain. Just resilience. Our land is tough, and so are our people. We must hold onto that, because if we only dwell on what we lose, we forget what is right in front of us. When the fires hit, I received a call from Suze and Jim Gall of Faithfuls Creek in Euroa. They said, we’re sending a thousand new RB Sellars shirts. Give them to people who’ve lost everything. At first, I thought practically. People needed clothes. But those shirts became something else. They gave people dignity, they gave them permission to sit down, to talk, to process, and they restored pride and hope. They showed people they could stand tall and rebuild, because their community was willing to give them the shirt off their back. And that, to me, is Australia. Today, on Australia Day, I am proud. Proud of our community, proud of our values. Proud of the quiet strength, generosity and decency that defines us. We have been tested. We have been hurt. But we are still here. And together, we will keep moving forward. That is Australia.
