Tidy Town competition hots up

23 October 2017

While the 2017 Territory Tidy Town awards ceremony is being held in Central Australia, the chance of a Top End community taking the main title from the MacDonnell Regional Council communities has never been greater.

A healthy competition among the 13 communities of the MacDonnell Regional Council means its staff achievements are rated very highly when judged against the rest of the Northern Territory. In many aspects of local government and service delivery in remote Australia, the MacDonnell Council is seen as a leader and innovator by stakeholders and peers.

This year again sees a healthy competition for the Territory Tidy Town Award from among the MacDonnell Regional Council, with local Civil Works teams providing the backbone of Council achievements while supporting the efforts of other residents. In recent years the competition from neighbouring and Top End councils has increased.

Competition for the Tidy Town Awards has been reinvigorated in remote communities across the Northern Territory.

Heimo Schober, Territory Tidy Town judge and CEO of the Keep Australia Beautiful Council NT concedes, “Central Australian communities keep going from strength to strength, but with Top End communities like Nhulunbuy and Maningrida showing great improvement my job is being made so much harder”.

Against the challengers MacDonnell Regional Council’s record is strong – consistently winning the Best Regional Council Award since it was introduced in 2014. This reflects its high standards and the achievements of its remote communities over those years and includes the top honour of consecutively being a Territory Tidy Town winner: Areyonga in 2016, Mt Liebig in 2015, and Titjikala in 2014 and 2013.

The Territory Tidy Towns awards not only recognise the efforts of litter management, but also include the categories of resource recovery, waste management, water conservation, energy conservation, eco-education, and community participation in small, medium and large communities and towns.

Along with its previous winners of the top honour, MacDonnell Regional Council communities like Santa Teresa and Finke have consistently won various award categories. Wallace Rockhole has also won the top honour repeatedly since the 1980s. In fact in 2015 it was awarded the inaugural 4 Star Gold Rating Award in recognition of the ongoing pride its residents show in both the presentation of their community and their tourist infrastructure and services.

All competition category winners will be announced at a gala awards ceremony dinner at the Alice Springs Convention Centre this Friday 27 October 2017. The awards night will culminate a Tidy Towns Forum being held at the same venue on the preceding day and covering such topics as tyre recycling, waste management and landfill operations, and creating a community specific Tidy Towns plan.

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