Two South West councils win gold at 2024 Tidy Towns awards

Two South West councils have won gold at 2024 Tidy Towns awards.

The City of Busselton and the Shire of Capel won top honours at the 2024 Tidy Towns awards for their impressive community clean-up projects.

The City of Busselton’s Litter Free Meelup project was declared the State winner in the litter action category for its ability to get the local community involved with beach clean-ups.

Coming to the community through a collaboration with the city and Meelup Regional Park Committee, the project included the installation of two litter stations at the popular beach equipped with buckets the local community could use to collect litter.

City of Busselton mayor Phill Cronin said the initiative was instigated by one of the city’s environmental health officers, Joe Caspersz-Loney, who found a simple way to reduce rubbish on the beach.

“In simple terms, what they did was they introduced an area where you could pick up a little bucket and when you went for your walk, if you saw any fishing line, litter, etc, or any rubbish, you were able to collect it in your bucket on the walk and then when you got back we had some some drop-off points to get rid of the rubbish,” he said.

“A lot of the community and the local walkers have really taken to it and it’s a great shout out to the community and their commitment to making sure that we live in this beautiful place where we say that the environment is really important to us.”

The Shire of Capel topped the waste management category for its Captivate Capel project — a now annual event encouraging sustainability, recycling and reuse to the community.

Shire president Doug Kitchen said the theme for 2024’s Captivate Capel festival was Waste to Wonder — focused on transforming waste into art and fostering sustainable practices.

The event brought in more than 3000 people, with students from five schools and 17 community groups engaged in activities from making native bee hotels and a hands-on demonstration of energy conservation using a bicycle-powered smoothie maker.

“The Shire of Capel is thrilled to receive this recognition,” Cr Kitchen said.

“It validates the hard work of volunteers, schools, community groups and staff, who contributed to the project.

“This accolade underscores the value of creative community engagement in achieving sustainable outcomes and inspires further commitment to environmental stewardship, which is a key part of the shire’s plan for the future.”

Bunbury’s Dolphin Discovery Centre was a finalist in the environmental education category and the Shire of Collie was an overall State title finalist.

This year’s overall State winner was Port Hedland and South Hedland which will represent Western Australia at the national competition in May next year.