Bicentenaries are typically a commemoration of a place anniversary. For the City of Albany, the Bicentenary represents 200 years since the first British colony was established in Western Australia in December 1826. However, we know that the place we now call Albany and the people that traditionally lived there had existed long before then and therefore this event simply marks a point in time.

The 2026 Bicentenary will involve a year-long marketing and events program, which will be determined following engagement with our community and key stakeholders. If you’d like to be involved in the planning of the Bicentenary commemoration, then check out our range of engagement activities!

We are starting the planning now so that we can involve stakeholders and the community without being rushed. Once we have engaged with the community, we will then draft a Bicentenary Strategic Plan that will guide the whole Bicentenary from events to art installations and other community initiatives. From there, we will also create a prospectus document, that will attract funding for many of the events and marketing for the Bicentenary.

We are casting a wide net for our engagement and are trying to reach as many groups of the community as possible, so please share this engagement with your Albany networks!

Other than the local community, we are also engaging with regional, State and Federal government stakeholders as well as visitors to the area.

Guiding the engagement for the project is the Albany Bicentenary Advisory Group, who are involved at key milestones of the project. They include:

• City of Albany Mayor

• City of Albany CEO
• Minister for Regional Development, Agriculture and Food; Hydrogen Industry
• Member for Albany
• Member for O’connor
• Great Southern Development Commission

• Western Australian Museum Boola Bardip
• Tourism WA
• Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries
• Albany Heritage Reference Group
• Bicentenary Community Reference Group

• Bicentenary Commercial and Industry Reference Group

We also have three Reference Groups that we are working with:

• Aboriginal Heritage Reference Group
• Community Reference Group

• Commercial and Industry Reference Group

Yes! You can come along to our pop-up information stalls at either the Albany Boatshed Markets or the Farmer’s Markets on the weekend of 18 and 19 June 2022.

We also have a number of digital activities which you can complete on this webpage, scroll up to see how you can be involved in our visioning activity and photo competition.

Yes! Please be sure to RSVP and let us know if you are bringing a friend along so we can manage capacity and organise catering.