Radio announcer Nick Rheinberger has been announced as the Australia Day Ambassador for the Bega Valley.
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Morning radio show announcer for ABC Illawarra, Mr Rheinberger will be addressing the crowd at Littleton Gardens on Friday, January 26.
Mr Rheinberger is a man of multiple talents, he is an award-winning comedy writer and copywriter, children's entertainer and scriptwriter, as well as a journalist, podcaster, musician and teacher.
He has been working in the radio business for 25 years.
Mr Rheinberger has previously been an Australia Day Ambassador for ceremonies in Mollymook and his hometown, Narrandera.
“I was asked where I wanted to go this year and I chose Bega because my great-great-grandfather named Valentine was on a ship called the Caeser which landed at Twofold Bay in 1855,” Mr Rheinberger said.
“I have been really lucky that my distant uncle is the family historian, he has put together a comprehensive family tree which I have been looking at lately just to remind myself.
“All of the Rheinbergers come from the two brothers that were on that ship.”
The Rheinberger name is popular around Bega and Mr Rheinberger is curious to see if there will be any in the crowd on Australia Day.
“My ancestor Valentine was a vine dresser that moved to Mudgee, his brother stayed in Bega,” he said.
“At family reunions you are asked if you are either a Mudgee Rheinberger or a Bega Rheinberger.”
Mr Rheinberger is inspired by the people of Australia and is impressed by how society has developed itself since early settlement.
“Australia Day is so contested now, it means a lot of different things to a lot of people. I think we can be inspired by a lot of different experiences.
“I am inspired by my ancestors who took the most difficult decision to come across the sea on an unreliable boat to Australia where they didn’t know the language.
“I am also inspired by the Indigenous experience as well, that the culture survives,” he said.
“I think we can be inspired by the fact that all these criminals that came here [to Australia] mixed with the Indigenous society and the pre-settlers, as a result they have made this incredible society.”