Tidy Towns

More than just a beauty contest, Tidy Towns Sustainable Communities is a program that encourages rural communities across NSW to improve environmental outcomes for their town.

Tidy Towns Sustainable Communities encourages community groups, councils, businesses and individuals to work together towards the common goal of making their town a better place to live. The program acknowledges and celebrates the efforts of participating towns through the Tidy Towns Sustainable Communities Awards.

The prize for all Tidy Towns Sustainable Communities participants – regardless of whether they win an award or not – is a stronger, more vibrant, and more sustainable community in which to participate.

Hello Tidy Towners, what an excellent start to 2010, it is great to see the country getting some decent rain at last.
We welcome new and previous communities to enter into our regional awards program for this year and would appreciate if you could encourage neighbouring communities to get involved also. We have kept the same categories as 2009 and now allow two school entries per town instead of the previous one.

• We are investigating the option of a professionally done Tent City for the Lockhart weekend accomodation. Please reply to confirm whether you are interested in this option and thank to you those who already have.

The key dates for this year are below:

• Entries Open Monday March 8 Please send your entry forms in as soon as possible.
• Regional Workshops April/May
• Assessor Training Monday 26/Tuesday 27 July - Are you interested in being a Tidy Towns Assessor- email info@kabnsw.org.au for more information!
• Assessor Week Monday 16 – Friday 20 August
• Awards Weekend in Lockhart 5, 6 & 7 November

For a 2010 Tidy Towns Sustainable Communities entry form please download here. For guidelines on how to enter download the 2010 Entry Kit. Please send your entry forms in as soon as possible. Tidy Towns submission forms are available below, and are due 11th June 2010. Please complete the submission cover page along with your submission(s).

Submission Cover Page
Overall Town 'People in Environment' Award
Cultural Heritage Award
Bush Spirit Award
Waste Minimisation Award
Water Conservation Award
Wildlife Corridors and Habitats Conservation Award
Schools Environment Award

The Tidy Towns Tamworth Awards Weekend was a huge success with over over 400 attendees from various towns across the State in attendance.
It was lovely to see everyone having such a fun time, networking, and learning from the many celebrated initiatives and projects.

A big thank you must go to the Tamworth Tidy Towns Committee and Tamworth Regional Council whose tireless efforts and preparation over the last 12 months resulted in an extremely enjoyable weekend for all.

CONGRATULATIONS to all who participated in Tidy Towns Sustainable Communities this year and used the program as a vehicle to improve their local town. Please get in contact with Phil Kelly if your town would like to host one of 5 workshops this year. The workshops are designed to empower and guide towns toward successful community, heritage and environmental activity.

A FINAL CONGRATULATIONS to all Tidy Towns Award Winners, especially LOCKHART, the deserving TIDY TOWNS STATE WINNER 2010!

As well as the Overall State Tidy Towns Award, awards were presented in the following categories:

• Country Energy Bush Spirit Award
• Grundfos Water Conservation Award
• Heritage Branch Cultural Heritage Award
• "Do the Right Thing" Waste Minimisation Award
• Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water NSW Wildlife Corridors and Habitats Conservation Award
• Schools Environment Award

Click here to go to the Tidy Towns National home page
Click here for a list of which areas in NSW are eligible to enter

We also encourage everyone to fill out a short survey form about the Tidy Towns Program which will assist us with ideas for the program and help us to make improvements to the event in the years to come.

Partner & Award

Overall Award

This evaluates the 'overall' towns environmental, community participation, volunteer activities and beautification elements.

Cultural Heritage Award

Awarded to community projects that enhance and

protect the heritage character of a feature or group

of features and the preservation of Australian culture.

Waste Management & Litter Reduction Award

Recognises projects that initiate, support and promote

litter prevention and the waste minimisation hierarchy

of ‘refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle and rethink’. Projects

can cover all types of either litter prevention and/or

waste minimisation activities undertaken by a variety of stakeholders.

Wildlife Corridors & Habitats Conservation Award

Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water NSW

Recognises endeavours by community groups to

protect native fauna by developing or maintaining

wildlife habitats and corridors.

Schools Environment Award

Recognises a holistic approach to environmental

education within Department of Education and Training,

Catholic and Independent primary and secondary schools.

Water Conservation Award

Recognise sustainable water management within

communities which has combined innovative water

conservation and water re-use initiatives at the private,

industrial and municipal levels, benefiting society and nature.

Bush Spirit Award

Awarded to community projects that refuste to 'give in' when facing a challenge. They must demonstrate proper planning, community partnerships and real outcomes in the solution.