Raiders join in to celebrate launch of Centenary Sport

Raider’s five-eighth Josh McCrone joined a host of Canberra Sporting identities and Minister for Sport Andrew Barr yesterday, to launch the huge calendar of events planned for Canberra Centenary celebration in 2013.

To celebrate the Centenary the Raiders will be holding a match against the Brisbane Broncos on June 10, where they will wear a special Centenary jersey to celebrate Rugby League’s involvement in Canberra’s sporting landscape. The jersey will be launched in the new year.

Canberra is the most active community in Australia, the community served by a dynamic sport and recreation industry and an abundance of great sporting facilities, bike paths and nature reserves that all invite active participation.

It is fitting that sport will play a central role in Canberra’s celebrations with a diversity of major events being held and a series of BIG sporting contests including the first ever Rugby League international (Australia v NZ ANZAC Test in April), the Women’s Australian Open Golf (February) and a Netball Test between the Australian Diamonds and New Zealand Silver Ferns (October). These events complement a vast number of national championships, invitational events and smaller community activities all happening in 2013.

In addition, Canberra’s elite national sporting teams are uniting to host within their existing fixture a special Centenary of Canberra Match in 2013, highlighting the prominent role these teams play within the Canberra community. The Centenary Matches aim to:

• Build a significant Centenary activity within the team’s existing fixture for mutual benefit;
• Build upon the already strong representation of sporting events in the Centenary program;
• Increase community and national awareness of Canberra’s Centenary celebrations through a very yellow “look and feel” for the Centenary Match and associated messaging; and
• Through the activities and associated match attendance and broadcast, build greater community and national appreciation and ownership of Australia’s capital city.

The Centenary match schedule includes the following events:

• Canberra Capitals v Dandenong at the AIS Arena (4 January)
• One-Day International Cricket at Manuka Oval – Australia v West Indies (6 February)
• Brumbies v Waratahs at Canberra Stadium (9 March)
• Giants v St Kilda at Manuka Oval (13 April)
• Canberra Raiders v Brisbane Broncos at Canberra Stadium (10 June)
• Canberra Darters (August TBC)
• Canberra Cavalry (October/November TBC)
• Canberra United (November TBC)

All Australians have a link with their nation’s capital, but we’re sometimes guilty of taking it for granted. 2013 presents an ideal opportunity to get closer to Canberra, both the city itself and its national and symbolic roles.

In 2013, we celebrate 100 years since Lady Denman, wife of then Governor-General Lord Denman, stood upon the newly laid Foundation Stones and announced that the name of the new Australian capital would be Canberra.

The Centenary of Canberra is an opportunity for all Australians to celebrate this momentous occasion in our country’s history and to explore the many facets–local, regional, national and international–of our nation’s capital. This city tells the story of our country's freedom, spirit, achievements and aspirations.

The year-long program will include new and exciting projects, but equally it will showcase the very best of what’s already happening in Canberra each year–the people, the places, the events that contribute to Canberra’s role in our national story.

The ambition behind the Centenary program is to create lasting legacies that will benefit generations of Australians to come and lead Canberra confidently into the journey of the next hundred years.

The Centenary offers a great opportunity to explore Canberra through its natural seasonal calendar–revealing a lively and active 21st century city ideally fulfilling its important role as the nation’s capital.

Since inception, Canberra has been the site of some of the best thinking in the country. It continues to be an incubator of great ideas and scientific achievements and the custodian, on behalf of all Australians, of the nation’s most significant cultural assets.

The Centenary of Canberra celebrates the history and heritage of one of the most enduring planned cities in the world and at the same time highlights its lively present and bright future.