The official Australia Day celebrations have begun with quiet reflection about reconciliation at Evans Lookout in the NSW Blue Mountains.
The traditional dawn service, held annually since 2005, began with a section of the Banjo Patterson poem The Mountains, read by legendary Australian actor Jack Thompson.
In her Welcome to Country speech, local Aboriginal elder Aunty Carol Cooper said Australia had come "a few yards up the ladder of reconciliation" in the past 12 months.
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Australia Day Council Deputy Chair Shelley Reys says the Blue Mountains provide the perfect backdrop for thinking about reconciliation.
"This place is full of history - Aboriginal history and white explorer history," she said.
"It is a landscape that has divided us and one that's brought us together.
"This place, as much as any, symbolises Australia's history as a nation."
The first Australia Day Dawn Service was held at Uluru in 2005.
