Australia Day 2023: Tamworth welcomes new citizens as 83 people take pledge

Cheers echoed the Tamworth War Memorial Town Hall as 83 new citizens received their certificates, more than double the number from last year's ceremony.

The diverse cohort comes from all four corners of the globe, from South Africa up to Britain, as far west as Brazil and as far east as Fiji.

"I have a home again," Iranian woman Roya Arya told the Leader.

Ms Arya moved from Iran six years ago, first to Sydney, but then to Tamworth with her longtime partner and fellow Iranian expat Fred Pah.

"We choose to live in Tamworth because we have a very lovely community," Mr Pah said.

He had to work very hard to improve his English communication skills when he first arrived, but he said it was all worth it because Australia's multicultural ethics gave him hope for a bright future

Mr Pah moved to Tamworth on the advice of his friend Eddie Whitham, who was also present at the ceremony.

"We've welcomed in people from 87 national - 88 nationalities now, we've got a Zambian- and they're all such wonderful people," president of Multicultural Tamworth Inc Eddie Whitham said.

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For Mr Pah, Mr Witham embodies Tamworth's culture of mateship, going so far as to drive out to assist Mr Pah at 9:30 at night when he got into a car accident with a kangaroo on his way back to Sydney.

From then on, Mr Pah and Ms Arya knew they wanted Tamworth to be their home.

The ceremony also saw its first Zambian national to receive Australian citizenship, Thandie Barden.

"This means so much to me. It's been a journey for me, as it has for many, but for me it's personal. I've been in Australia for most of my adulthood ... I got married here," she said.

Ms Barden runs her own small business, providing accounting services to Gunnedah and Tamworth, and she's excited to use her new citizenship status to help expand her business in ways she couldn't before.

"I'm hoping that my legacy will start from now, and carry on with the children that are coming ahead," she said.

Tamworth Regional Council mayor Russell Webb echoed that sentiment in his welcoming address, highlighting the fact that over 50 per cent of Australians were either born overseas or have at least one parent from offshore.

"Diversity is our greatest strength," he said.

And to all Tamworth's newest citizens, he offers a warm, "G'day!"

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