PRESS RELEASE: Bathurst wins top gong at Keep Australia Beautiful NSW 2023 Tidy Towns Awards
Embargoed 10:30pm (AEDT), Saturday 4 November 2023
The winners of the Keep Australia Beautiful NSW 2023 Tidy Towns Awards were announced on Saturday 4 November 2023 at an event hosted by last year’s winner, Scone.
The Keep Australia Beautiful NSW 2023 Tidy Towns Overall Award was presented to Bathurst, qualifying the town to represent NSW in the National Awards to be held in Gascoyne Junction, Western Australia in 2024.
Running nationally since 1990, these awards have evolved to encompass projects and initiatives with a focus on environmental sustainability and resource management to reflect a growing awareness of the importance of community-led environmental action. The awards recognise the hard work undertaken by regional towns, councils, individuals and groups, encouraging the sharing of best practices and ideas to improve our vibrant rural towns.
Overall winner Bathurst also won in the Litter Prevention: Clean Communities, Communication and Engagement and Heritage and Culture categories and received a highly commended in the Biodiversity Conservation category.
KAB NSW Tidy Towns Assessor, Doug MacDonald commented that “The Bathurst community is committed at every level to continue being a resilient, healthy, environmentally, and culturally sensitive community. There is very clear leadership from Council which has earnt strong support from the community.”
Val Southam, CEO of KAB NSW, said that “the Tidy Towns Awards inspire communities and councils across NSW to make a genuine and lasting contribution to their area through partnerships between local authorities, businesses, community groups, schools, and individuals.
“The commitment of the councils, organisations and individuals who entered is evident in the calibre of the entries received this year and I would like to congratulate this year’s winners and finalists and everyone that entered.” said Ms Southam.
The awards are hosted by Keep Australia Beautiful NSW with support from the NSW Environment Protection Authority, Upper Hunter Shire Council, Snowy Hydro, Australian Rail Track Corporation and TerraCycle.
Photos from the event and the awards winners’ book are available at https://www.kabnsw.org.au/bathurst-wins-to…idy-towns-awards/.