SHE'S been Miss World and Miss Venezuela. From tomorrow, it's Miss Australia

www.thesundaymail.news.com.au By Ashleigh Wilson 25jan03

SHE'S been Miss World and Miss Venezuela and tomorrow Ninibeth Beynon will celebrate this country's birthday by becoming Australian. Having fallen in love with the Gold Coast -- and Travers, her Australian model husband -- the 31-year-old mother of two moved to Australia five years ago and was granted permanent residency status.

Tomorrow she will join other new Australians at a citizenship ceremony in her adopted home town.

"I want to travel around Australia, I love the shopping in Melbourne, but the Gold Coast is my place -- the beaches, the coast, all of it," she said.

Her decision to take Australian citizenship comes amid threats of war abroad and terrorism at home as the nation struggles to define what it means to be Australian. Just as the proposal for an Australian pledge of allegiance was greeted with scepticism, this Australia Day, the ideals of tolerance, mateship and reconciliation are being questioned once again.

Australian troops heading to Iraq despite doubt over the legitimacy of their mission, the Bali bombings bringing terror to our doorstep, the treatment of Muslims in our increasingly suspicious neighbourhoods and the fractured voices of the nation's indigenous people debating whether to call January 26 "invasion day".

But for Ms Beynon, the urge to call Australia home is simple.

"It's the freedom," she said.

"I feel safe here in Australia. In Venezuela, it's much more dangerous. You can't leave your gate open and you need to have a hundred eyes around you when you go for a walk."

She believes the turmoil that has taken over Venezuela in the past few months has reinforced her decision to fully embrace her new home.

"It's very sad," she said.

"It's a beautiful country, I was born there, I grew up there, it's a shame."

Ms Beynon will retain her Venezuelan citizenship and despite her enthusiasm for her adopted country, she says her affection for her homeland will never fade.