Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\nRobin says she has a habit of getting \u201cbogged down in other people\u2019s history\u201d, having previously volunteered for four years \u201csmartening up\u201d the cemetery.<\/p>\n
The paperwork dates back to the late 1800s and had been growing dust in old barrels and tea chests at the local newsagents. From a pottery shed, they\u2019ve been cleaning up the old records, damaged by water, vermin, fire and the mark of time.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve found sustenance payments for ex-soldiers, residents who lost their farms for under a pound when their rates were overdue and rewards for parrot beaks and scalps of foxes that were overrunning the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re cleaning it up as we go, nobody is putting up hands to help us,\u201d she says with a laugh. \u201cBut there\u2019s so much to learn from it \u2026 I think the town will be a bit proud, a bit pleased and a bit gobsmacked if we win. They probably didn\u2019t realise the effort that\u2019s gone into it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hazel Harris is the community resource manager in Williams and helped lead the town\u2019s winning entry. After being announced victor, the whole community \u201ccame out in droves\u201d to celebrate at a sundowner.<\/p>\n
Williams, WA won the 2025 state title. Hazel Harris, right, says \u2018the community are all behind us\u2019 for the national prize. Photograph: Keep Australia Beautiful WA<\/p>\n
The awards honour \u201call the unsung heroes within small communities\u201d, Harris says, with Williams\u2019 winning state entry sign now sitting proudly by a beloved gumtree that\u2019s the first thing most travellers see driving into the main street.<\/p>\n
Launceston has the hosting rights for 2026 after winning last year\u2019s national title, with the sustainability team leader at the council, Michael Attard, in full preparation mode for the big event.<\/p>\n
He says winning gave the community a \u201cgreat sense of pride\u201d, with the city praised for its marine cleanups and education programs, as well as its volunteer-led Repair Cafe, which has diverted 2000 kilos of landfill.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a sense of purpose being part of a community group that\u2019s working towards [benefiting] our environment,\u201d Attard says.<\/p>\n
Traditionally focused on litter prevention and beautification, the awards have long since expanded, with the NT\u2019s winner, Ikuntji, for instance, commended in the heritage and culture category for becoming the first central Australian community to implement a local decision-making framework, empowering residents to oversee their own essential services in line with cultural knowledge.<\/p>\n
\u2018Unsightly objects\u2019 and \u2018standard of fences\u2019: Tidy Towns\u2019 evolution<\/p>\n
Tidy Towns was born in Ireland, which began running the awards in the mid 1950s alongside its flagship National Roadside Gardens Competition.<\/p>\n
As the story goes, an agent from the Irish Tourist Board, based in Sydney, reached out to WA\u2019s Tourist Development Authority professing they\u2019d had similar problems attracting amenities and tourist attractions \u201con the scale required by the traveller of today\u201d.<\/p>\n
In 1968, the inaugural Tidy Towns awards were held, with 59 entries divvied out points on a range of measures, including absence of litter and \u201cunsightly objects\u201d, \u201ccolour harmony\u201d of buildings and \u201cstandard of fences and paved areas\u201d.<\/p>\n
Back then, local councils, not community groups, were competing against each other, and it wasn\u2019t all fun and games. One shire took the competition so seriously it circulated a public notice reminding people to deposit their rubbish. A later notice warned \u201csome townspeople have made an effort to comply with council\u2019s suggestions while others have made no attempt whatsoever\u201d.<\/p>\n
Bunbury came out victor in 1969.<\/p>\n
Three years later, Keep Australia Beautiful, founded by the late Dame Phyllis Frost, formed a national association with the awards and since 1990, Tidy Town winners of each state and territory have been pitted against each other for the coveted national title.<\/p>\n
Keep Australia Beautiful NSW CEO, Val Southam, says running the awards is getting difficult as they no longer receive government funding and sponsors\u2019 budgets are getting tighter.<\/p>\n
Val Southam, CEO of Keep Australia Beautiful, says the awards survive \u2018by the hard work of the volunteers\u2019. Photograph: Jessica Hromas\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone thinks it\u2019s wonderful \u2026 but no one wants to put any money into it. It just survives by the hard work of the volunteers,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Back in the early days, a chief judge would individually tour the town of every state winner, now just reserved for the national ceremony. Southam recalls two years ago when Gascoyne Junction, a Western Australian community of just 70 people, took out the prize.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to catch two flights to get there and then they had to send a bus out 150 kilometres to pick us up \u2026 in the middle of nowhere,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pub put it on and they put tents up for accommodation. They brought in an army band from Fremantle and brought stargazers out in the evening to look at the stars in the dark sky. It was just amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the ability for a far-flung community to showcase their pride that Southam says makes the hard work worth it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact [volunteers are] able to get recognition means a lot, and that\u2019s something they don\u2019t get outside their own little community,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what we want to do \u2013 be able to reward them. Otherwise people lose heart, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a quintessential Australian image. Driving down a freeway or gravel track on a road trip and coming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-673129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}