General News
26 January, 2026
Australia Day in the Pyrenees
THE Waterloo Community Group will host this year’s shire-wide Australia Day celebrations in Beaufort, with a full day of activities planned for the community. President John Coshan said the event provided an opportunity for the group to showcase who they are while bringing people together. “Part of the day is really about just gathering people together and enjoying our time to celebrate who we are as Aussies, why it’s important to celebrate as a community, for who and what we are.”
The group is also keen to share the rich history of the township of Waterloo, which was once a thriving community during the gold rush.
“It wasn’t small, it had over 10,000 people. That was during the gold rush. It had a thriving community,” Mr Coshan said.
Historical elements will form part of the Australia Day celebrations this Monday.
“As part of the Australia Day celebration, we’re actually having a gold panning and metal detecting setup there. There’s also a bit of a historic display of photos.”
The celebrations will be held at the Goldfields Recreation Reserve in Beaufort from 10am to 2pm, with formalities beginning at 11am.
“There’s a whole lot of activities, a petting zoo. We’ve got the Western Bulldogs coming to do activities. We are hoping that it should be a really great turnout and there’s going to be plenty of food, plenty of entertainment.” he said.
Mr Coshan said the day was about coming together as a community.
“It’s about having an opportunity to, as a community, celebrate who we are as Australians,” he said.
Additional activities on the day will also include woodworking workshops, mini golf, live music and face painting.
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