Melbourne councillors who sparked a national debate after refusing to recognise Australia Day are due to spend January 26 at a private indigenous cultural ceremony.
The councillors from Yarra City, in Melbourne's inner suburbs, in August joined Darebin council in scrapping January 26 as the national day out of respect for local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The Wurundjeri ceremony, off limits to the public, will instead acknowledge the loss of life, culture and language linked to European settlement.
"As a council, what we are doing is changing the way we mark the day out of respect for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities," mayor Daniel Nguyen said.
The council has no plans or ability to cancel the national public holiday, he added.
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Councillor and former Yarra mayor Amanda Stone oversaw the council's shift away from recognising Australia Day, instead urging people to use January 26 to reflect on what the day means for indigenous people.
"People say that if we don't recognise Australia Day then we shouldn't get the public holiday, but that's not the spirit of what we are trying to do," Ms Stone said.
The council's libraries and customer service centres will shut on the public holiday, but rangers, waste and some civic officers would be working, she said.
Darebin council community development director Katrina Knox said they were not against having a public holiday.
"We believe it should be moved to different date out of respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities," Ms Knox said.
Following the move to scrap Australia Day, the federal government revoked Darebin and Yarra's ability to host citizenship ceremonies at any time of the year.
Citizenship Minister Alan Tudge said Australia Day was the most popular day of the year for new migrants to become citizens.
"If councils don't want to hold them then we'll give those citizenship ceremonies to other organisations," he said.
He slammed suggestions Australia Day should be a time of mourning as "ridiculous".
Melbourne's Moreland City Council has also voted remove the Australia Day tag from January 26, but will still host a citizenship ceremony on Friday.
Websites for all three rebel councils suggest residents ask their employers if it's possible to work on Friday and schedule an alternative day off.
Councillors at Yarra, Darebin and Moreland would be sacked if Victoria's Opposition Leader Matthew Guy gets his way.
He wants to change the law to allow democratically-elected councils to be dismissed if they refuse to celebrate Australia Day on January 26.
"I won't tolerate local government or any other part of government talking down Australia," Mr Guy told 3AW on Thursday.
"(If) we change the government at the end of the year, I will have the Local Government Act amended," he said.
Police Minister Lisa Neville said Mr Guy's proposal was "grandstanding" and council elections were the best way to change policies.
