Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!

Sun Peaks celebrates Australia Day weekend with sausage sizzle fundraiser for bushfire relief

Jan 26, 2020 | 1:18 PM

SUN PEAKS, BC — On January 26th, 1788, the First Fleet of British ships arrived at Port Jackson, New South Wales and claimed the continent of Australia as a British Colony. Two hundred thirty-two years later, Australians all over the world, including at Sun Peaks, joined those Down Under to celebrate Australia Day.

However, this year, the celebration took on some extra significance for the hundreds of Aussies who work and play at the mountain resort.

Sun Peaks had a celebratory feel about the resort over the weekend. That’s likely because the Australians who work and visit the resort were observing Australia Day, albeit a little differently than they would if they were back home.

“We’d probably be away camping,” Erica Thorbun (decked out in her Australian flag, with matching sunnies and a koala headband) explained.

One Man's Opinion

COLLINS: Are the B.C. Conservatives digging their own graves?

6h ago

Sound Off

SOUND OFF: Culturally appropriate food goes beyond the ingredients on a plate

Dec 14, 2024

Two and Out

PETERS: Whether building up or tearing down, Kamloops is what you make it

Dec 13, 2024

“You’d be up at the river,” Thorburn said to her fellow Aussie, Tennille Southcombe.

“I’d be up at the river waterskiing. So, doing a different type of skiing.” Southcombe explained. “We all get together as families and celebrate a fun day.”

Every year, hundreds of Australians come to the resort to work for the winter season, while more visit as tourists to hit the slopes.

“Well over 200 Australians work [at Sun Peaks] every winter season, and then Australia is our single biggest international market for visitation, as well,” Sun Peaks Resort Chief Marketing Officer Aidan Kelly told CFJC Today. “The whole resort has been full of [Australians] for the whole month.”

With the wildfires and floods wreaking havoc across the Australian continent, the Sun Peaks community used Australia Day to come together and help out.

“Living in Sun Peaks, and BC specifically, over the past few years we’ve had bad fire seasons here. We know fire,” Alex Smith said. “To see Australia, and areas that I have friends that come from and live in, being burnt up, it breaks my heart.”

Alex Smith was one of the organizers of the Australia Day Sausage Sizzle fundraiser that took place over the weekend. He operated the grill on the patio at Masa’s, while his buddy Josh Balston, from Queensland, was serving up snags over at Mantle’s.

“It was quite worrying. Especially when I got the phone call that my Grandma had to be moved – was going to be moved – luckily, she wasn’t, the fire went past her home.” Balston told CFJC Today. “It’s definitely tough, watching it from another country.”

The Sausage Sizzle was just one of many different fundraisers going on for Australian bushfire relief. The Aussies working or visiting the community to enjoy the resort appreciated the effort.

“It’s honestly amazing,” Southcombe said. “To see the community get behind it up here, it’s brilliant. It’s pretty special to think that we’re loved over here.”

“It’s amazing that Sun Peaks has galvanized the community for a foreign country that’s in trouble,” Thorburn said. “It’s just incredible.”