Author Archives: Suzette

Encourage your local primary school to have a special assembly for Australia’s National Wattle Day Suggest they decorate their reception area and classrooms with fresh sprigs of flowering wattle your classroom with fresh wattle or paper wattle blossoms  Suggest they decorate their classrooms with wattle art and craft Donate wattles for low-allergy plantings around  the […]

National Wattle Day on 1 September across Australia was proclaimed an official national day in Australia in 1992 What is it all about?  There is no one way and so many ways to celebrate National Wattle Day (1 September). We are going to share ideas with you over the next month or you can see […]

2024 GOLDEN WATTLE AWARD Call for nominations for the Golden Wattle Award Nominations are now open for the 2024 Golden Wattle Award.  In no more than 250 words please say why this Australian, or Australians, deserve recognition for their work or actions that express the best of the Australian character and values. Nominations are to […]

Our 28th Governor-General, Her Excellency the Honourable Ms Sam Mostyn AC, together with her husband, Simeon and sister wore stunning wattle sprigs this morning at her swearing in at Parliament House, Canberra. Around her neck Her Excellency wears the Governor-General’s wattle blossom-inspired insignia for the Order of Australia. The popularity of this symbol grows stronger […]

For the 2024 Anzac Eve AFL match, Richmond wears the wattle. Their moving video about the history of wattle as a reminder of home for Australian soldiers serving overseas in WW1 is well worth viewing.  

Vanessa Alexander was presented with her Golden Wattle Award at the Australian National Botanic Gardens Canberrra today against a backdrop of Australia’s National Floral Emblem – Golden Wattle (Acacia pycnantha). Read why Vanessa received this award… …

Her Excellency Mrs Hurley stands out as she sets a new trend, wearing a wattle print dress and yellow hat at the 2024 Australia Day Citizenship Ceremony by the shores of Lake Burley Griffin, Canberra. Mrs Hurley’s dress complements His Excellency’s Medal of the Order of Australia, that depicts a single wattle blossom, and his […]

Wattle pollen is rarely the cause of hayfever or asthma. The persistent myth that it does, dispelled long ago by Australian immunologists, has been perpetuated with the help of self-serving advertising by some antihistamine marketing companies. And yet whenever there is talk of National Wattle Day as an alternative to Australia Day on 26 January, […]

In the lead-up to Australia Day, we once again find ourselves discussing other national days that have the potential to unify all Australians; from the most recent immigrants to the First Australians. Tammy Solonec’s thoughtful analysis published in 2014 hold true today as she examines why some options will not work and why others will: […]

Australia Day 2024 poses more than the usual challenges Terry Fewtrell January 26 poses more than the usual challenges in 2024. Barely 100 days since the failed referendum there is the real prospect of the respective advocates and supporters reigniting a process, the only real outcome of which was community division. There is the risk […]