Inside her tent at Speers Point Park, where kids could sit and listen and slap thick ochre handprints on canvas, the Ngiyampaa, West Lake Aboriginal elder was preparing to give the Welcome to Country address.

It had been on her mind.

“The Welcome to Country, on Australia Day? It’s probably the biggest hot potato, politically, you can get at the moment,” Ms Chedzey said.

“Personally, I’d like it moved. Why not make it a multicultural day, or the day the very first Prime Minister took charge? It’s a day of invasion for a lot of Aboriginal people and I don’t think we need to share that every year.”

Outside, on a stage near the lake, Macy Nash, 8, sang the national anthem in light drizzle.

Macy, from Blacksmiths, had practiced “quite a bit, to get the sound just right”, and was proud to look out and see her family and friends.

On the grass, past where siblings Liam (14) and Hayley (12) Evans were nibbling dagwood dogs, Wendy Leach sat with her pug-cavalier cross, Prince Bentley.

Prince Bentley could be persuaded to wear an Australian flag bucket hat and, for a rice cracker, raise his paw in a high-five. His collar was a flag bow tie.

By the shore of the murky lake, two picnic tables from John Whalley and his bicycle-drawn esky of XXXX Gold, Paul Carter had slept out to claim his spot.

“This is probably the best Australia Day venue there is. We always get the top acts,” Mr Carter said.

“I love this view, love the music. I went to Warners Bay High, and a few old Bay guys are around.”

Barbecues were lit, and the smell of burnt sausage mixed with kebab meat and chips. People sat in camping chairs or on carpets of pine needles. Braiden Hilton, 10, and Alicia Needs, 12, swam with a giant inflatable thong.

The flag’s red, white and blue was stronger in pockets of the crowd of about 10,000 in the park. A man’s black t-shirt, of an Australian flag-wearing skull, was for a group called “Royal Australian Infidels”.

A woman recalled how her last Australia Day, at an AC/DC tribute concert, was interrupted when a group of “Asian girls” came into the pub.

“I hit the roof,” she said.

“But you can’t say that anymore,” a man in her group said.

Earlier, Lake Macquarie mayor Kay Fraser had welcomed 110 new citizens from 34 countries.

Ruth Brand, of Awaba, took her pledge after living in Australia for 65 years.

Setting up food, drink and kayaks around a tent by the lake, Tracy Gardner and her partner Joel Winter hoped a combination of cricket and swimming would wear out their kids, Bella-Jean and Johnathan.

Their party, a racially diverse group of friends affiliated with the Salvation Army, had set up a tent hung with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags.

“We’ve got a beautiful country here, never mind what’s happening around the world,” Mr Winter said.

“It’s one of the only days that all of the cultures can come together to celebrate this, this here. That’s what makes it special.”