GLENELG Shire welcomed its newest Australian citizens last week, with a citizenship ceremony held in its reception room.

Carol Holmes, Daniel May and Olli Virtanen officially accepted their citizenship during the ceremony after living in the community for a number of years.

In 1970, Mr Virtanen immigrated to Australia from Finland with his parents and 13 siblings.

At just eight-years-old, he said he did not have many memories of early life, and mainly just recalled the cold.

Although moving to the other side of the world was a daunting step, Mr Virtanen said he settled into Australian life well.

“My parents are the bravest people I know,” he said.

“It was a huge step for them to take and it changed our lives completely.

“I’ll be forever grateful for them.”

Despite living in Australia for almost his entire life, he said taking the step to become an Australian citizen was a difficult one.

“A lot of the supporting documentation was hard to find,” he said.

“I’d been wanting to do it for a while but it just took me some time to get it all together.

“I’m proud to finally be a citizen though.

“It’s important for me to have my opinion on the country’s future and have that right but mostly I just love Australia – that was the main motivation.”

Not forgetting his heritage, Mr Virtanen took his pledge on his family’s Finnish bible.

Over the years Mr Virtanen eventually started his own family with wife, Kim, going on to raise a son and a daughter and is now a proud grandparent to a grandson.

Living in Portland since 1987, he has been an integral part of the community, working at the smelter for more than 33 years before retiring during the pandemic.

As the country comes out of the pandemic, Mr Virtanen said he just looked forward to enjoying his retirement however he and his wife decided to do so.

“We’ll see what the future holds but for now I just look forward to spending time with our family,” he said.