Gascoyne Junction leads list of successful Mid West, Gascoyne towns to clean up at WA Tidy Towns Awards

Multiple Mid West and Gascoyne towns cleaned up at the WA Tidy Towns Awards last Friday, nabbing five of the 11 gongs up for grabs recognising their efforts to make their communities more sustainable and environmentally friendly. Gascoyne Junction won the big award of the night, being proclaimed the State winner, recognising a number of initiatives the shire undertook such as an alternative underground water supply project and upgrades to the town oval’s reticulation system. The town also won the award for environmental sustainability for its water conservation and future-proofing efforts. Shire of Upper Gascoyne CEO John McCleary said the success came as a surprise, but it was a great honour for the town to be recognised on a State level. “Pretty big achievement for a little town like us,” he said. “It’s a reflection on our community and our shire, everyone’s got to be involved to bring it together.” Gascoyne Junction will now go on to represent WA at the national Tidy Towns awards. Carnamah won the award for litter prevention and waste management for the efforts of the Carnamah Lions Club and Carnamah Opportunity Shop who run a recycling program which generates money then redirected towards community projects. The Shire of Exmouth won the Community Containers for Change for its effort, a project with local Freemasons volunteers which has seen 1.64 million containers recycled and $164,000 raised. Horrocks won the award for community action and wellbeing for the Glance Over lookout, a project by local volunteers and the Shire of Northampton to develop a lookout in Horrocks with new paving, gravel, sculptures, sundial and benches.