Hot Topic Archives: Regional Tidy Towns awarded
Five regional towns have been announced as winners in the Keep Australia Beautiful Council’s (KABC’s) Tidy Towns-Sustainable Communities program.
Dandaragan claimed the title of 2008 Midwest-Gascoyne Regional Winner, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands took the Kimberley title, Hedland won in the Pilbara, Williams in the Great Southern and Denmark in the South Coast Region.
Winners from the Town of Williams.
Tidy Towns Acting Program Manager Maureen Maher said all the towns showed great community spirit.
“The willingness of the volunteers to generously give their time, plus their passion and pride in their community, has seen them achieve positive results for their communities,” she said.
“The Tidy Towns-Sustainable Communities program is about much more than keeping towns clean and tidy. The awards reward and recognise towns for initiatives that involve the community in preserving their culture, protecting the environment and improving the sustainability and amenity of their towns.”
Some of the initiatives in Dandaragan included involving the town’s youth in tree planting, establishing a recycling depot, reducing the impact of salinity on the town’s buildings and infrastructure, using grey water on the primary school’s water-wise gardens and replacing the grass on the bowling club’s greens with synthetic turf.
Dandaragan Primary School students planting trees.
Projects in Cocos (Keeling) Islands included a foreshore clean-up which yielded 5,000 thongs as well as many drift and ghost nets, refurbishing the youth centre, creating a surf shelter out of an old cattle crate, buying 20 rainwater tanks and maintaining good waste management practices.
Maureen said it was great to see an estimated 134 people, out of a population of 630, participating in the Tidy Towns projects on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.
“The community has built on its rich cultural diversity and overcome significant barriers of remoteness with its many Tidy Towns projects this year,” she said.
Hedland’s many community groups worked collaboratively on projects which included developing a package of resources and events to welcome new residents, using the ‘Green Machine’ to sweep the streets, sourcing a graffiti machine, organising a Street Blitz Garden Competition and offering a range of cultural activities at the Court House Gallery that included both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
Maureen said it was apparent that Williams had a clear understanding of the concept of sustainability and how it applied to their community.
“The level of community involvement in the town is particularly impressive, as is the pride the residents have in their town. Even though Williams is only a community of some 950 people they have achieved remarkable results,” she said.
Initiatives in Williams included the development of a walk trail and information shelter at the Williams Nature Reserve, an ongoing commitment to planting water-wise native species, increased recycling efforts and improvements to the town’s landfill facility.
Maureen said the judges had been particularly impressed in Denmark, by the activities at the primary and district high schools.
A busy bee at the Dandaragan Community Centre. The centre is maintained by a committee made up of representatives from every sports organisation in the town.
“With their younger generations so well informed, Denmark can look forward to a sustainable future,” she said.
Initiatives that contributed to Denmark’s success included a beach and roadside clean up, the Litter Free Denmark campaign, the weed action group, projects undertaken by the community climate change committee and involvement in the shire’s climate change and clean power projects.
The Tidy Towns Sustainable Communities judges included representatives from KABC, DEC and community members.
For more information visit www.kabc.wa.gov.au or contact Maureen on 6467 5131.
Published as a DECmatters article 4th November 2008
