By Adam Coleman

The coastal town of Swansea in Tasmania has won the title of Australia’s Tidiest Town for 2007, beating more than 1000 entries at an award ceremony in Melbourne yesterday (May 13).

The Keep Australia Beautiful Australian Tidy Towns sustainable communities Awards recognised that the Swansea Tidy Towns Committee, with support from the Glamorgan-Spring Bay Council and the local community, had demonstrated a high level of commitment to protecting and improving their local environment.

“Tidy Towns has grown both in size and in breadth since its inception 30 years ago to now focus on ensuring regional communities become more sustainable. Swansea has shown a wide diversity of interaction between communities, local government, businesses and citizens,” said Keep Australia Beautiful national chairman, Don Chambers.

On top of winning the Australia’s Tidiest Town award, Swansea also collected the Community Action Award and Heritage and Culture Award.

With a substantial number of historic homes and buildings heritage, restoration is a major priority in Swansea, with colourful banners and numerous well kept residential gardens complementing the town’s presentation. 

Swansea’s recycling and resource recovery initiatives were also highlighted having been successful in diverting large volumes of waste from landfill, while numerous public waste and recycling bins featured throughout the town enable visitors to separate waste and recycle at the source.

Glamorgan-Spring Bay Council deputy mayor, Martin Crawford, told governmentnews.com.au that the award was the result of a five year strategy and effective community collaboration.

“The Tidy Towns chairman Kyrle Hodson and his wife Elizabeth [Hodson] have really spearheaded a strategy to work with council and community groups to enhance what is a seaside historic village in Tasmania with around 600 residents,” he said,.
“It’s been a real connection between the various groups, the chamber of Commerce has been very active, the tourism people within the town have been very active and council really acted as a facilitator. 
“Parks and Wildlife has been very active, community groups – we have one group called the Community Development Group which is made up of young mothers in the town. There is around nine or ten of them and they have worked hard.”