Campaspe Shire welcomes newest citizens

By Shannon Colee

Jan 28, 2024

Special event: Thursday was a night of celebration as Campaspe Shire welcomed its newest citizens. Photos: Aidan Briggs Photo by Aidan Briggs

Thursday was an evening full of emotion for those gathered at the Echuca Wharf, reading the Australian citizenship oath and becoming Campaspe Shire’s newest citizens.

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Joemerlyn Arenio has moved here to be with her partner and said it was exciting to finally become a citizen.

“I like Australia. It’s very nice here and with lovely people. My partner lives here and I wanted to be here,” she said.

“It’s very exciting, actually. I get off work early so that I can organise myself. We were so excited.”

Well done: Federal Member for Nicholls Sam Birrell and Campaspe Shire’s Cr Tony Marwood and Mayor Rob Amos congratulated Joemerlyn Quirino Arenio on her new citizenship. Photo by Aidan Briggs

For someone like Ahmed Al-Hameli, who is from the United Arab Emirates and was encouraged to move because of his sexuality, Australia provided a lifeline.

“I came out to my mother and her response was literally, ‘we need to get you out here’,” he said.

“I actually ended up going and talking to a bunch of my friends and working on how I would get out of here. How am I going to get into university? How am I going to get away?

“Even when I was a little kid and I was living there (UAE) before I realised that I was gay, I was just like, I know there is something wrong here. I am really unhappy.

“My mother, she basically gave me two options. Go to the (United) States where you’ve got family, but you don’t know them, or I could come here.”

Despite still not having a relationship with his father, after nine years of living in Australia, his mother has recently been able to visit him.

“I just went to my dad and told him I was leaving, and I left literally five days later. I came out to my father three years after I had moved here, basically to say I wasn’t going back,” he said.

“It’s really hard because I don’t speak to my father any more, but I do talk to my mother. When I told my father, it broke his heart and he didn’t speak to me any more. He talks to me through my mother.

On song: Indi Gilmore sings the national anthem. Photo by Aidan Briggs

“But my mum visited for the first time a couple of months ago and it was so amazing.

“She came and saw how I live now, and it’s funny because the last time I saw her, she treated me like a kid, and this time, she treated me like an adult and told me all of these things that I never knew.”