Redland City welcomed 168 people from 26 countries as new Australian citizens at a ceremony at Redlands Performing Arts Centre this week.
The event fell on Australian Citizenship Day, September 17, and came almost 60 years after the Redlands held its first citizenship ceremony on October 1, 1954.
Guest speaker at the ceremony was Carl Saffigna, who wrote the book Half a World Away after interviewing more than 100 descendants of immigrants living in the Redlands.
In his address, Mt Saffigna spoke about the families he interviewed for the book and also about the immigrant experience of leaving the home country behind, but stepping into the new.
New citizens who took part in the ceremony were from Afghanistan, Belgium, Canada, Costa Rica, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Kenya, Mozambique, New Zealand, Philippines, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom, USA, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.
