MORE than 6000 sausages, 20 kilograms of onions, 250 loaves of bread and 6000 pieces of fruit fed the masses who attended Australia Day celebrations at Commonwealth Park.
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But the mountain of food was no match for Canberrans' appetites with the last sausage eaten by 10.30 am.
It took eight barbecues manned by local sports stars, including Brumbies Clyde Rathbone, Joshua Mann-Rea as well as basketball champ Lauren Jackson and coach Carrie Graf to cook the traditional national day breakfast.
And while the wait for a sizzling snag was long - the line stretched across the grass in front of Stage 88 - locals showed their generosity by dropping notes into the collection buckets asking for a gold-coin donation.
ActewAGL head of marketing Paul Walshe has helped out with the annual event that raises money for children's charity Camp Quality for the past 13 years.
''Last year we made $6000 for Camp Quality,'' Mr Walshe said.
''But judging by the crowd this year we're going to beat that.''
This year ActewAGL increased the number of sausages it bought by 1500.
''Last year we went though 4500 snags and this year we bought 6000,'' Mr Walshe said.
Next year they may be cooking 7000.
