Only since 1994 has Australia Day been so, a holiday but pretty much just an excuse for backyard barbies and beer.

We celebrate Oz Day, a day when another country claimed NSW as a colony, and raised another flag.

But the perennial debate rages about what it means to be Australian, and why the date doesn’t need changing.

Most of us just look forward to the public holiday and being Australian isn’t about flag-waving jingoism.

If there’s one defining quality that sets us apart from the rest of the world, it’s our laidback character and culture.

We don’t go much for tokenism, and designating one day a year for us to celebrate what it means to be Australian seems like exactly that.

As around us elsewhere we see chaos, economic gloom, violent conflict, and misery, we reflect on how lucky we are to live in Australia.

And we should reflect on it every day, not just on January 26.

It’s a sentiment that certainly won’t be lost on the new citizens naturalised as Australians in Tamworth on Australia Day, many from places ravaged by war, poverty and persecution.

They give us the privilege and pride in becoming one of us.

As this weekend’s local Australia Day awards will show, we live in a community with a powerful sense of purpose and shared responsibility, where so many go the hard yards to help others. And honouring all those, not draping ourselves in flags, should be the real message of Australia Day. 

Most of us may be in shorts and thongs this weekend, and that’s the Australian way.

The mayor will host our citizenship ceremony in regal, historic gown, an agent of the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection.

The new citizens will be dressed appropriately, many in their national dress while celebrating their new Aussie-ness, as signed-up full and legitimate members of this country.

Good on them. Good on us.