Australia’s country music capital, Tamworth in New South Wales, is Australia’s Tidiest Town for 2009.
Established in 1969 in Western Australia, the annual Keep Australia Beautiful Tidy Towns Awards aim to identify, acknowledge and promote Australia’s best examples of sustainable communities in regional and rural areas across Australia.
This year, the program celebrated 40 years of local environmental achievements.
The 2009 awards were announced on 7 May at a function hosted by Governor General Quentin Bryce at Government House in Canberra.
As well as winning the overall national title, Tamworth also picked up the national Community Action and Energy Innovation Category Awards.
Troy Cassar-Daley, one of Australia’s finest country music stars, spearheads the City’s ‘Don’t Waste Tamworth’ litter and waste reduction education campaign.
The program is particularly active during the Country Music Festival, when Tamworth hosts thousands of visitors.
Meanwhile, Tamworth’s innovative ‘Ban the Bulb’ program has also seen the city become the first in the nation to install energy efficient lighting in almost every home.
The purpose of the project was to remove all incandescent light globes and replace them with free energy efficient Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“The Tamworth Regional Tidy Towns Committee plays an important role in preserving and enhancing the local environment through a broad range of projects that work towards a healthy, sustainable environment for residents and visitors,” said Tidy Towns National Judge, Dick Olesinski.
“The Committee works in close partnership with Tamworth Regional Council, business, industry, local residents and, in particular, the school community networks.
“The community has a strong understanding that even though important, neat and tidy streets are not just what the Tidy Towns program is about.”
Other Tidy Towns 2009 Award winners are:
- Heritage and Culture –
Oatlands, Tas - Environmental
Innovation – Kambalda,
WA - Water Conservation – Horsham, Vic
- Litter Prevention –
Horsham, Vic - Resource Recovery –
Atitjere, NT - Community Partnership – Oatlands, Tas
- Young Legends –
Stansbury, SA - Protection of the
Environment– Caloundra,
Qld - Dame Phyllis Frost Award:
Individual – Don Johns,
Vic, and Greg McKean,
Qld - Dame Phyllis Frost Award:
Group – Stansbury Tidy
Towns Committee, SA.
For further information about Tamworth and all national category award winners visit www.kab.org.au/tidytowns
