Published on 16 March 2023
Melbourne Cup Day will continue to remain a public holiday across the Gannawarra Shire after a Gannawarra Shire Council-managed community engagement period showed strong support to retain current arrangements.
Councillors approved a recommendation at the March 2023 Council Meeting to continue to recognise the first Tuesday in November as a municipality-wide public holiday.
The decision followed on from a 26-day community engagement period conducted during November and December 2022, organised following a Kerang and District Agricultural Society request to replace the Melbourne Cup Day public holiday with a public holiday for Kerang Show Day, held on the Monday after the first Saturday in October.
Residents were able to complete a survey during the engagement period, with options provided including full-day or half-day holidays or arrangements for different parts of the municipality.
“Council thanks all residents who took the time to complete the survey during the engagement period, which provided Councillors with guidance regarding this matter,” Mayor Charlie Gillingham said.
“This was the first time since 2016 that Council has engaged with the community regarding our public holiday arrangements, and it was great to receive 302 responses from residents across the municipality.”
The engagement period found that 57 per cent of people who completed the survey preferred to retain the full-day Melbourne Cup Day public holiday across the municipality, with 18 per cent of responses preferring the Kerang Show Day public holiday. The remaining respondents preferred half-day public holidays for each event across the municipality (12 per cent), full-day public holidays for different areas of the municipality (11 per cent) or other options not stated in the survey (2 per cent).
“Supporters of the Melbourne Cup Day public holiday highlighted the need for continuity with metropolitan-based businesses when it comes to public holiday arrangements, whilst the first Tuesday in November holiday also creates the opportunity for a four-day weekend, which Cohuna benefits from thanks to its hugely popular Cohuna Festival,” Mayor Gillingham said.
As a result of the decision, Council will work with the Kerang and District Agricultural Society to identify ways to address the declining number of volunteers available to assist with running the Kerang Show – one of the reasons for the request to change the Melbourne Cup Day public holiday arrangements.
“Supporters of the Kerang Show Day public holiday identified the need for Council to support our local events and difficulties attracting volunteers as key reasons for changing our public holiday arrangements,” Mayor Gillingham said.
“Council is pleased to look what support it can provide to help one of the Gannawarra’s oldest events.”