2015 Winners and Highly Commended

Table of ConTenTs (MeTro)

Hey tosser! litter action award 4No Butts around Holroyd - Holroyd City Council 4Keep Bondi Beautiful!- Waverley Council 5Hey Tosser- Bin Your Butts- City of Canada Bay Council 5

Waste less, recycle More award 6WasteLess in the Bay- City of Canada Bay Council 6Resoucewise - Sustainable Business Program- City of Canada Bay Council 7Resource Recovery Field Team- Penrith City Council 7

Going Green education award 8Randwick’s Sustainability Education ‘Hub’ at Randwick Community Centre 8There’s No Such Thing as the Dog Poo Fairy Mosman Municipal Council 9Motto large scale worm farm trial Green Living Centre, Newtown 9

Habitat and Wildlife Guardianship award 10‘Return of the Mermaids’ Project - Friends of the Bush 10Rehabilitation of Camden Wetlands Reserve - Camden Council 11Manly Volunteer Penguin Warden Program - Manly 11

sustainable systems award 12Sustainability Assessment Tool - Pittwater Council 12Bathers Way Shared Pathway - City of Newcastle 13 Getting the total picture on Randwick’s Energy Savings! - Randwick City Council 13

Cultural Heritage award 14Inside History Magazine 14Manly Art Gallery & Museum Cultural Programs- Manly Council 15‘Keeper of the Stone’ – Children’s Heritage Education Award - Holroyd City Council 15

environmental achievement award 16Barbara Roach- Gwandalan 16Peter Maganov - Randwick City Council 17Alan Lane - Popes Glen Bushcare Group 17

Young environmental achievement award 18Airds High School EnvironMENTALS 18Lake Macquarie City Scouts 19Kate Smellie- Splash Into... 19

Community environmental achievement award 20Western Sydney Carpool Project Group 20Graffiti Removal Project - Rotary Club of Strathfield 21Killarney Vale Saltmarsh Landcare 21

overall Metropolitan sustainability award 22Canada Bay 22Randwick 23Holroyd 23Manly 23

blue star sustainability awards regional 24 - 50

InTroduCTIon

The Blue Star Awards are Keep NSW Beautiful’s new awards program. Through the Blue Stars we recognise and celebrate the hard work of NSW citizens who promote responsible environmental management in their local area.

Being truly sustainable means addressing the entire spectrum of environmental, social and economic factors. So our awards recognise civic pride, communityspirit and future planning in establishing the best projects and programs to come out of NSW communities.

The Blue Star Awards have replaced the old Tidy Towns, Clean Beaches, and Sustainable Cities Awards. Our intent in overhauling the awards programs was to preserve them – to keep an old system with a strong and important message relevant for 2016.

KNSWB is always striving to make NSW communities better places to live, work, and play. By changing the way our awards programs work (from a tired, financially nonviable model), we’re keeping in step with our changing communities. The award categories are updated for the Blue Stars model, with more relevant and detailed criteria – to better reflect the good work our communities are doing to make our state a better place – and the Blue Star Awards are more efficient and user-friendly for our entrants.

The Blue Star name comes from the star in the heart of the KNSWB logo. It’s a symbol of our organisation’s mission to help make our communities thriving, sustainable, healthy places to live and work. Our Awards program, like the star, is at the heart of our mission. It is our guide to sustainability, and a nod to New South Wales’ state colour: blue.

The first year of the Blue Star Sustainability Awards attracted hundreds of exciting, inspiring entries – a record number, more than we had received in a decade – and it is our great pleasure to bring those winning and highly commended entries in this booklet to all readers across the state.

Many of these projects are adaptable and transferable. You might find yourself reading about a solution that could work in your own area. You might see elements of a working strategy that speaks to your situation.

At Keep NSW Beautiful we strongly believe that grassroots workers, volunteers, government, businesses, schools, and more all have a hand in creating positive change in our environment. We hope this book brings you a little closer to finding a new idea to change where you live, or gives you the confidence in your own projects to submit it for recognition in the Blue Star Sustainability Awards.

David ImrieChief ExecutiveKeep NSW Beautiful

HeY Tosser! lITTer aCTIon aWardno butts around HolroydHolroyd City Council

This project focuses on reducing the amount of cigarette butt and chewing gum litter in the Merrylands CBD, after a litter survey identified these as being the most littered items in this area. One of the key features been the use of street theatre performers to engage the community about the issue of littering and the penalties involved. The performances (over 60 hours in total) proved to be an effective way to communicate important littering messages to our community. During the performances over 2000 personal ashtrays were distributed to smokers many of who admitted to littering cigarette butts. These performances have been supported by installation of signage and advertising. Additional infrastructure was provided by way of seven cigarette butt recycling stations, and 100 shopkeepers in were given a dustpan to encourage the community to assist us in addressing litter. A significant reduction in litter was observed at all checked sites from 1044 piecees to 150 (86% reduction).

The No Butts About Holroyd Project shows how a number of initiatives working together can give a great result. This project showed great planning and research and also showed a unique and entertaining approach to tackling what is a constant problem in so many areas. I think the educational value of street theatre can not be underestimated and often appeals where other things fail.

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Keep bondi beautiful!Waverley Council

Hey Tosser- bin Your buttsCity of Canada Bay Council

Waverley Council’s “Keep Bondi Beauti-ful” campaign was conducted from Oc-tober 2014 - February 2015. It included a range of initiatives to reduce litter vol-umes on Bondi Beach. The “Did You Pick Up Today?” slogan was used and other initiatives included the development of a time-lapse movie demonstrating Coun-cil strategies to reduce litter. Operational chages included altering beach raking to the evenings to capture greater volumes. In addition to the standard patrols, a “Summer Clean-Up Crew” also patrolled the beach collecting and recording litter items. Litter audits were conducted as part of the campaign and these became part of a larger study looking at innova-tive innovative options for waste and litter management at Bondi Beach, including pneumatic underground waste systems and solar compacting bins.

Bin your Butts is a pilot project targeting cigarette butt litter. It tackles littering behav-iour though the use of butt recycling and infrastructures upgrades, education and enforcement. Initially Council conducted site audits gathering data on the retail are-as. We also conducted surveys onsite with users including smokers, non-smokers, and businesses to identify barriers and po-tential issues. New butt litter infrastructure was installed providing a place for people to dispose butts, with ground decals of arrows directing smokers to the bins. A compara-tive approach was used throughout testing different branding and differing approaches to find the most successful. This unique integrated approach resulted in a 94%re-duction in the number of butts littered in Rhodes and an 82% reduction in Concord, three fines were issues and over 14kg of disposed butts collected for recycling.W

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resource recovery field TeamPenrith City Council

City of Canada Bay engaged 158 busi-nesses through ‘BinTrim’ and assisted them in recycling an additional 739T of waste from landfill raising the average re-cycling rate from 33% to 46%. The pro-gram is engaging a total of 30 businesses to help them understand the food waste that they generate by measuring their ‘spoilage’,‘prep waste’ and ‘plate waste’ for several days. This process along with a food waste avoidance checklist and fact sheet is being developed to give business an understanding of their food waste and the tools to help them reduceit. Participants will share their lessons learned and tips in a short film and all out-puts from the ‘Waste less - $ave more’ project will be translated into a number of community languages so that food waste avoidance messages can be shared.

The Resource Recovery Field Team (RRFT) challenge the barriers to correctly sorting waste, facilitates residents sorting tech-niques, and improves collection logistics. Resident awareness of the RRFT enhanc-es correct sorting and recycling due to the presence and education of the team in field. Addressing cul-de-sacs and narrow prob-lem street issues has enabled collection ve-hicles to operate safely and efficiently. This is achieved through liaising with drivers and target education and safer bin placement. To date the team has identified and imple-ment safer procedures to over 250 Penrith residents through education by home visits, flyers, numbering bins and relocating bins to improved collection locations. This pro-gram provides improved customer service, reduces organic contamination to <5per-cent, and has in one area reduced contam-ination from 30% to 3%.

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WasTe less, reCYCle More aWardWasteless in the bayCity of Canada Bay Council

WasteLess in the Bay (WLITB) is a compre-hensive community awareness, engagement and education program focused on chang-ing behaviours towards waste by seek-ing commitments for desired behaviours. WLITB has engaged with and distributed resources to 1,251 households, achieved 4,213 commitments for individual behaviour change and generated community aware-ness - they are well on the path to achieving wide-spread community behaviour change over the next two years of implementation! One significant feature of thiis application, which the judges commented on, was the development of an app available in 9 lan-guages. This allows residents to quickly and simply investigate tricky waste items and reduces contamination. Other features included Food Matters Workshops, Waste-Less Schools providing free bins to schools, and two new positions within council.

WLITB is a comprehensive community awareness, engagement and education program. It is focused on changing behaviours towards waste by seeking commitments for desired behaviours and giving incentives to residents. The use of various communication channels to get the message across is a highlight in CCB’s WLITB. They have a youtube channel and developed a phone app for residents!

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resoucewise - sustainable business ProgramCity of Canada Bay Council

sponsored by the nsW environment Protection authority

GoInG Green eduCaTIon aWard

Randwick City Council

Randwick Council has created a sustainabil-ity education ‘hub’ at the Randwick Commu-nity Centre in response to the strong inter-est and expectation of its local community in protecting, restoring and improving their environment. Randwick’s sustainability edu-cation initiatives and programs target all com-munity sectors, from householders, visitors, business owrne, students and Council staff. Courses offered free-of-charge at the ‘hub’ include: Sustainable Living and leadership, permaculture gardening, bringing birds and bees to your backyard, school energy and water saving excursions. The sustainability retrofit within the centre demonstrates sig-nificant energy and water saving measures in terms of heating, cooling, ventilation and related measures. These retrofits extend out-side to security and sensor lighting, the use of recycled materials and development of a permaculture demonstration garden.

What a fantastic resource to allow residents to see sustainability in action. Encompassing education for a multitude of environmental fields. Council is to be credited for their dedication in providing an invaluable resource for community members to improve sustainability practices at home and work.

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There’s no such Thing as the dog Poo fairy Mosman Municipal Council

Motto large scale worm farm trialGreen Living Centre, Newtown

Picking up dog poo isn’t a glamorous job but someone has to do it! This was the premise behind the environmental education and behaviour change cam-paign “there’s no such thing as the dog poo fairy” which was delivered through-out 2014 in a fun, quirky and attention grabbing manner. The campaign includ-ed marketing through social media, com-munity stalls, “dog poo” relays, letter box drops, bin dispensers and stickers, print advertising, coupled with onsite monitor-ing. Six Council parks and reserves have been monitored, and dog poo left in-situ counted and flagged. Flagging undertak-en in January 2015 showed great results with a 53% decrease in the amount of dog poo left in our parks and reserves, com-parative to results from January 2014.

In November 2013 the City of Sydney’s program Smart Green Apartments part-nered with the Green Living Centre (GLC) to trial large-scale (1500L) worm farming with an apartment building as part of the Smart Green Apartments program. The purpose of the trial was to reduce food waste from going to landfill and to provide the trial part-ners with a best practice model for the successful management of a larger scale worm farm within an apartment building and the engagement of its residents. The trial ran over six months and involved building residents, executive committee members and building management. After the six month trial, the residents decided to keep the farm as a permanent fixture and it was formally adopted at the AGM. During the trial, close to 350kg of food was diverted from landfill and 400L of organic fertiliser from the farm was distributed to residents.

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randwick’s sustainability education ‘Hub’ at randwick Community Centre

HabITaT and WIldlIfe GuardIansHIP aWard‘return of the Mermaids’ Project Friends of the Bush

The “Return of the Mermaids” is a commu-nity initiated project to rehabilitate what had become a dump-site and return it to the sta-tus of environmental jewel. This commenced with a massive Clean Up Day in 2002, and has involved ongoing rubbish removals, tree planting activities, drain stenciling, community education days and monthly bush regener-ation activities as part of Warringah Council’s “Friends of the Bush” program. The volunteer team is currently installing nesting boxes for microbats, arboreal mammals and birds. In addition we also do native fish surveys. It is though that freshwater fish such as Gudgeon and Galaxias have been migrating up Manly Creek to the Mermaid Pool to breed for up to 60 million years! Sadly many of our urban wa-terways and bushland reserves have become weed infested tips. Our hope is to inform the community that these are very special places that deserve respect and protection.

This submission is a winner as it combines multiple elements, local community vision, action and passion. The elements include clean up of litter and dumped waste and transformation of a negelected site back into a veritable oasis. Weed control, bush regeneration, community education, reintroduction of wildife and restoration of both terrestrial and aquatic habitats makes this a complete package.

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rehabilitation of Camden Wetlands reserve

Camden Council

Manly Volunteer Penguin Warden Program

Manly

The primary aim of this project was to en-hance biodiversity, aesthetic values, and the ecological functions of the amden Wetlands Reserve through the removal of woody weeds and revegetation plant-ing of native shrubs and trees around the wetland.Camden Wetlands Reserve is lo-cated adjacent to the Nepean Cycleway and provides habitat for a number of na-tive animals including many wader birds such as Purple Swamphens, Australian Wood Ducks and White Spoonbills. Prior to rehabilitation, the wetland was heavily infested with highly invasive woody weeds including Willows, Honey Locust and Box Elder, and had little ecological value.

The Little Penguin (Eudyptula minor) colo-ny of Manly is NSW’s only remaining main-land breeding colony and is one of the few examples of a wild Little Penguin colony near a major urban centre. The Little Pen-guins breeding around Manly’s highly pop-ular Wharf area are particularly at risk from disturbance, pollution and dog attack. Fol-lowing several incidents of egg/nest de-struction and the death of a chick during the 2005-06 breeding season, the com-munity-initiated Volunteer Penguin Warden Program was established. Since then, the Penguin Wardens have grown into a di-verse and highly dedicated group of vol-unteers, dedicating over 2,000 hours each year to help protect the penguins from dis-turbance and interference. During the pen-guin breeding season, volunteers are sta-tioned at the Wharf every night before dusk - sometimes staying until 2am - to safe-guard the colony and provide information to locals and visitors about the penguins.

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susTaInable sYsTeMs aWardsustainability assessment Tool Pittwater Council

The Sustainability Assessment Tool was designed and implemented by Pittwater Council to ensure sustaina-bility is embedded across all areas of council’s business. The tool assists Council to make decisions, track and report on their progress, and encour-age sustainability in every day opera-tions. In 2015, all business cases over $100,000 through Pittwater Council completed a sustainability assessment, which was used to assess over 30 major projects, including the design of a new skate park, managing and pro-tecting the waterways, and helping to shape their active transport strategy. The online tool is made up of 23 ques-tions that cover environmental, social, economic and governance dimensions.

A very readable report. Clearly conveys the enthusiasm of the proponent for the project and its outcome. Great to see sustainability becoming embedded into all practises and being kept accounted for.

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bathers Way shared PathwayCity of Newcastle

Getting the total picture on randwick’s energy savings!

Randwick City Council

Bathers Way is a 6km pathway spanning from Merewether Beach in the south to Nobbys Beach in the north. It is currently being upgraded over five years to provide comfortable pedestrian and cycle access for diverse recreational uses along the coast, as well as improve environmental outcomes in coastal areas. The Bathers Way project has also been the catalyst for ongoing coastal revitalisation. This project represented an opportunity for Council to improve the quality of the coastal vege-tation and local stormwater quality to en-hance the overall health of the coastline.

Randwick Council’s Energy and Green-house Management Plan and new Re-newable Energy Master Plan enable the council to fully understand, plan for, implement and monitor a comprehen-sive systems approach to managing and investing in energy conservation. Since the plan’s implementation, Rand-wick have doubled their renewable en-ergy capacity from 75 kilowatts to 150 kilowatts by installing a small scale wind turbine and solar PV on Council sites.

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CulTural HerITaGe aWardInside History Magazine

Inside History magazine is an independ-ent, Sydney-based and fully Australi-an-owned social history and family history publication for people who are passionate about the past, founded by Cassie Mercer. On a deeper level, Inside History address-es an important, more abstract need: the knowledge gap and, if you will, ‘interest gap’, surrounding Australian history. The magazine aims to fulfil the market need for a quality history magazine and also help ad-dress the sadly (anecdotally) widespread perception of Australian history as ‘boring’, and the misconception that ‘nothing really happened’. Inside history believe that such attitudes towards Australian history can only stem from a lack of awareness of the diverse and downright fascinating multitude of sto-ries, people and historical developments that have helped shape the nation that it is today.

The magazine looks great, it is well laid out, and the content is vibrant and engaging. Great use of the range of media available including printed form and web-based. The wide ranging content of the magazine, the calibre of the articles and it’s readability. Providing links to where people can do research for themselves.

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Manly art Gallery & Museum Cultural Programs

Manly Council

‘Keeper of the stone’ – Children’s Heritage education award

Holroyd City Council

Through Manly Art Gallery & Museum, Manly Council actively engaged with the community in presenting a dynamic and diverse range of cultural programs, exhi-bitions and festivals. Specifically, during 2014 and 2015, Manly Art Gallery & Muse-um presented 13 exhibitions to the public which involved 4 major solo exhibitions by artists from the community, the artworks of 45 local artists in group exhibitions and over 80 participants in the 2014 Manly Arts Festival. Collectively, these events drew an audience of over 120,000 people.

The “Keeper of the Stone” is a children’s heritage award, open to primary school aged children in Holroyd. The award launched in 2003 and the competition aimed to invoke children’s interest in local history. The competition received over 700 entries in the form of artwork, pictures or stories providing an insight into what her-itage or a heritage items means to them.The winner of this award becomes the “Keeper of the Stone” and custodian of the “Heritage Stone” for a year. The “Stone” is a keystone brick sourced from the remnants of a deteriorated kiln in the historic Goodlet and Smith Brickworks.

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enVIronMenTal aCHIeVeMenT aWardbarbara roachGwandalan

When Barbara moved to Gwandalan she recognised the need to create a friend-ly meeting place for people to interact. In 2012 she worked tirelessly to recruit peo-ple while negotiating with Council to identify a suitable location for a community garden. The Gwandalan and Summerland Point Community Garden is run on purely organic principles with provision for pollinators, water harvesting and frog ponds. The garden is so popular that there is a waiting list. In 2012 Barbra approached Landcare to establish a group to eradicate weeds and rehabilitate in the remnant bushland. Barbara is involved with the local primary school through the schools’ kitchen garden teaching them how to grow organic vegetables and herbs. In 2014 Barbara assisted a group who wanted to establish a Tidy Towns group. They have since reinvigorated a nature strip on the main road into Gwandalan which was previously a local landmark before falling into disrepair.

It takes a brave woman to undertake a letter box drop when still fairly new to an area to start a community garden. I believe Barbara is a worthy recipient for this award for not only achieveing the building of a thriving community garden from scratch, developing a landcare group and starting a Tidy Towns group but being a positive influence in the community, who continues to look for opportunities to grow the community and environmental works. None of Barbaras efforts are small task on their own, but to achieve all of them is a wonderful inspiration.

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Peter MaganovRandwick City Council

alan lanePopes Glen Bushcare Group

Working with Randwick since the envi-ronmental levy program commenced, Peter has made Randwick a leader in sustainability, now recognised across the local government sector in Austral-ia through the range of international, national and regional awards received for its innovative efforts in sustainability and program results and achievements. Peter has led sustainability innovation and cultural change across the organisa-tion over a long period – this change was achieved substantially through Peter’s strong communication and commitment to delivering sustainability outcomes within and external to the organisation.

As a new resident of Blackheath back in 1990, with a house overlooking Popes Glen Creek and its catchment, Alan no-ticed that what he thought was the Aus-tralian bush was actually weeds, and they were threatening the Bushland Re-serve and the Greater Blue Mountains National Park downstream. So Alan formed the Popes Glen Bushcare Group.After 25 years, and 10,000 volunteer hours from the Group, with the removal of the last of the willows, five species of frogs have re-turned to the wetlands, and a wonderful di-versity of small birds is taking up residence.Popes Glen Bushcare Group is one of the most successful and durable bushcare groups operating under the Blue Moun-tains City Council Bushcare Network.W

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YounG enVIronMenTal aCHIeVeMenT aWardairds High school environMenTals

The Airds High EnvironMENTALS group came about after the school’s Tree Day in 2014. This event stirred up some in-terest in environmental action amongst some of the school’s youngest students, and the EnviroMENTALS were formed. The EnvironMENTALS have applied for two grants, one which was complete-ly written and submitted by a group of 12-13 year olds, and have successfully obtained them both. This grant money has been put forward to support their community garden and to reduce lit-ter waste in the school. This keen in-terest in environmental awareness has prompted the inclusion of a Horticulture course run by TAFE NSW onsite, who also assist in the implementation of the students’ ideas. Many of the students have now engaged their parents in gardening activities outside of school, growing their own herbs and vegetables.

They have captured the essentials and have demonstrated good planning, organising and implementation of the plan. Very Well Done!!! A community garden that aims to provide fresh food to the school canteen. Well organised trip to Toronga Zoo and exchanging experiences with students from other schools is remarkable!

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lake Macquarie City scouts

Kate smellieSplash Into...

In early 2013, the Lake Macquarie Dis-tricts Scouts Group became the Cham-pions of Lake Macquarie City Councils Eco Angel Program. To launch the pro-gram more than 100 scouts volunteered to host the first Eco Angel Clean Up at Speers Point foreshore. Since Eco An-gels Program launch the Scouts and numerous other groups comprising of approximately 1160 volunteers haveremoved 12409 kilograms of litter from the Lake Macquarie area. The Lake Mac-quarie District Scouts are committed to their local place, and as community lead-ers of the Eco Angels Program have contin-ued to demonstrate this committment by managing Eco Angel Stalls at events, pro-moting the program within the community, organising their own clean ups and build-ing a culture of community service and civic responsibility within its membership.

Kate Smellie is an environmental education extraordinaire at “Splash Into!” Kate is an amazing Marine Educator who is fostering a love for the environment in youth aged 0-18 years. Kate has educated thousands of chil-dren and visited hundreds of preschools and schools with the “Splash Into!” programs. Imagine the most passionate and enthusi-astic young person you know. Now multiply it by 100, add 4 and you might be getting close to the amount of enthusiasm and drive Kate has for her career. Kate is the driving force behind our business, and none of our achievements would have happened with-out her! Splash Into... would not be Splash Into... without Kate Smellie. Kate contin-ues to surprise with her enthusiasm,ideas, passion and drive. Kate goes above and beyond the scope or expectations of an employee, volunteeringso much of her time (without pay) to do a million different tasks.

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CoMMunITY enVIronMenTal aCHIeVeMenT aWardWestern sydney Carpool Project Group

Western Sydney Carpool is a free on-line matching database. It is based on accredited research which found that more than 60% of commuters trav-el alone in their vehicle in Sydney.Google Maps searches around where the website member lives for others along the route to a similar suburb des-tination. The members use their own ve-hicle to share the driving on alternate days to work or study. This reduces the number of vehicles on the roads at peak times and therefore reduces the amount of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.There is also branded priority carpool parking in member owned car parks.

It is refreshing to see a new type of entry using modern technol-ogy and managed by an or-ganisation that can be trusted. The fact that participants save petrol costs, reduce CO2 emis-sions and enable more cars to be taken off the road are excel-lent breakthroughs for a bet-ter quality of life. Obviously well managed and with the potential to grow this is a program that tackles a never ending prob-lem for a sustainable future for our society. Congratulations!

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Graffiti removal ProjectRotary Club of Strathfield

Killarney Vale saltmarsh landcare

The Graffiti Removal Project is a commu-nity project of the Rotary club of Strath-field which was established in 2013. The aim of the project is to periodically but continuously remove graffiti within the Strathfield area with the expertise of Ro-tary club members and volunteers, and hopefully, eventually, make it graffiti free. The Rotary Club of Strathfield endeav-our to remove graffiti every 2 or 3 weeks and have a purpose built graffiti removal trailer. The branding on the trailer sends a clear discouraging message to the pub-lic graffiti creators and encourages more volunteers to join the clean-up. The gen-eral perception is that it is getting better!

The Killarney Vale Saltmarsh Land-care group was formed by a number of residents along the southern fore-shore of Tuggerah Lake, Killarney Vale in Wyong Shire, who were con-cerned over the state of their lake and foreshore edge, riddled by black ooze The group are committed to the res-toration of Saltmarsh, an endangered ecological community on the lakes edge. In eighteen months the group has achieved amazing results from removing weeds and cleaning up the overgrown areas. This has seen the return of saltmarsh species, shore-birds, waders and crabs. The black ooze has decreased in quantity and the wrack wash ashore and decom-pose without rotting and smelling.

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oVerall MeTroPolITan susTaInabIlITY aWardCanada bay

Canada Bay stood out with its clear strategic plan of where each of their sustainability pro-grams are heading. These programs include a council emission report defining sources of greenhouse gases from areas such as paper and fleet vehicles, a waste program with So-lar operated belly operated compactor bins as part of a litter project, a Culture and Heritage program in which Council will improve signage and information on the Convict Trail (The Great North Road), and a water harvesting project in which water is harvested from a stormwa-ter canal, undergoes a number of purification processes and finally ends up being used on sporting fields. Across all projects Canada Bay are excellent at creating Community group links, with consistent community consultations, education and support of community groups. City of Canada Bay demonstrate that with thoughtful, sustainable-minded strategies and planning in place, you can achieve new heights in environmental protection every single day.

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randwick

Holroyd

Randwick embraces technology enthusiasti-cally. They work closely with their community and appreciate their important relationship with surrounding councils. Refurbishment of its community centre is an impressive achievement, and is a further sign of its dedication to preserving and enhancing bushland in the area close by. Randwick has adopted a renewable management plan which embraces water, waste, ener-gy and biodiversity operating on a model of knowing- resourcing-explaining and doing. Fantastically reducing greenhouse gases is a priority with council favouring and giv-ing priority to hybrid cars and the new light rail to pass through the Randwick area.

With a population of over one hundred thou-sand people and coping with a huge num-ber of development applications, Holroyd is adapting and setting itself up to embark on an effective, challenging program that results in the area being a very pleasant place to live. This application process has been stream-lined by placing each one online as soon as it is received. Holroyd are facing a ma-jor issue with many older homes containing asbestos, and have contracted a company to help in this removal. Holroyd are also cre-ating exemplary Litter prevention programs such as street art and performers and in-stalling cigarette bins in the business district.

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Manly, without doubt, must have one of the best anti-litter programs in the state. From the Litterbug actors, who show the antiso-cial aspects of littering to visitors, asking vis-itors to Take the Pledge, filtered water sta-tions to refill water bottles and a machine to remove chewing gum from the pave-ment.The local community are also very in-volved, from the Litter guard volunteers to the Manly Wharf Fairy Penguin Volunteers. Manly have also installed rain gardens to collect excess runoff and filter nutrients be-fore they can enter the water table at the beach, and Sea horses are protected on the shark nets at the beach beside the wharf.

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Table of ConTenTs (reGIonal)

Hey tosser! litter action award 26Marine Environment Protection - Eurobodalla Shire Council 26Berrigan Sports Ground Litter Reduction - Berrigan Tidy Towns and Conservation Group 27Litter Reduction in Maitland - Maitland City Council 27

Waste less, recycle More award 28Equity Park Enterprises - Berrigan 28Organic Collection Kerbside Service - Cooma- Monaro Shire Council 29Coffs Coast Trims Waste from the Hem Up - Coffs Harbour Council 29

Going Green education award 30Grow and Give - Mount Austin High School 30Sustainable Living Week - Rotary Club of Orange 31Waste Compliance, Waste Management & Environmental Education - Port Stephens Council 31

Habitat and Wildlife Guardianship award 32Tomakin Wetlands Project- Mogo Aboriginal Lands Council 32Protect and Grow Program - Cabarita Beach Dunecare and Hastings Point Dunecare 33Protect and Grow Program - Wingecarribee Shire Council 33

sustainable systems award 34Sustainable Solutions- Parkes Shire Council 34Making Orange‘s Water Supply Sustainable - Orange City Council 35Naroo Aged Care Hostel - Warialda Community 35Building Community Sustainability in Eurobodalla - Eurobodalla Shire Council 36

Cultural Heritage award 37Eskbank House and Museum Cultural Heritage Precinct - Lithgow Tidy Towns 37Caring for the Ancestors, Wallaga Lake Aboriginal Cemetery Project - Eurobodalla Shire Council 38Green’s Gunyah Museum - Lockhart & District Historical Society 391915 Lithgow City Band’s Commemoration of the ANZAC Centenary 39

environmental achievement award 40Bill Josh - Orange 40Sister Carmel Wallis - Wagga Wagga 41Maree Ryan - Berrigan 41

Young environmental achievement award 42Giles Tennant - Coffs Harbour 42Fingal Head Public School 43Berrigan Public School 43

Community environmental achievement award 44Small Farms Network - Kiama 44Australian Ecosystems Foundation Inc - Lithgow 45The Maitland Community 45

overall Coastal sustainability award 46Narooma 46Fingal Head 47Cabarita Beach and Hastings Point 47

overall regional sustainability award 48Orange 48Berrigan 49

HeY Tosser! lITTer aCTIon aWardMarine environment ProtectionEurobodalla Shire Council

The aim of the Eurobodalla Marine En-vironment Protection program is to re-duce all forms of litter reaching the ma-rine environment through action andeducation. We have set up a marine debris working group (MDWG) creat-ing a web of volunteers and agencies toassit in reaching as many people as pos-sible. The education component har-nesses existing businesses, schools,community groups and agencies to assist in spreading vital informa-tion to the broader community, (bothpermanent and visiting). Prior to setting up the Eurobodalla marine debris working group no one in the Eurobodalla post code areas wereusing the Tangaroa blue marine de-bris national data base. To date we have over 9,000 pieces of debris loggedon the data base from our post code areas.

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This project is an outstanding example of how strong com-munity, business and council partnerships can influence the outcomes of a project through collaboration and feedback. The collaboration with locals has obviously has not only had a lasting impact but there the collection of significant statistical data through log-ging pieces picked up is inval-uable when observing weath-er patterns and how the tides change throughout the year.

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berrigan sports Ground litter reduction

Berrigan Tidy Towns and Conservation Group

litter reduction in MaitlandMaitland City Council

Berrigan Sports Ground Litter Reduction Project brings together Sports Ground Committee, Football, Netball and Cricket Clubs, both Schools and Berrigan Con-servation & Tidy Town all working togeth-er to change the habit of the community, by the introduction of new infrastructure (new bins which have closing lids), Don’t Be a Tosser enforcement signs and 10,000 Car Tidy Bags. The community can now enjoy going to the Oval to train or exercise after an event and not have rubbish carriedall over the ground after it has already been cleaned up by the committee. The new garbage bins have stopped birds from spreading rubbish.

To look at the litter problem closer Coun-cil has recently conducted a litter cam-paign targeting a recreational park,a youth space and a shopping mall. The project aimed to move the focus from litter clean-ups to litter prevention.To begin the pro-ject litter audits were conducted at each of the three hot-spots. Council then installed additional litter and recycling bin enclo-sures.The bin enclosures installed were user friendly, highly visible and encour-aged good disposal behaviours. Council also conducted a series of presentations at local day-care centres to explain to chil-dren what happens when we drop litter on the ground instead of placing it in a bin. Following the campaign, a post litter audit was conducted at each of the project sites. Each of the sites showed a dramatic reduc-tion in litter present.W

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WasTe less, reCYCle More aWardequity Park enterprisesBerrigan

Equity Park Enterprises is a farming business that aims to be sustainable. The farm enterprise consists of summer and winter cropping, grazing and a contract piggery housing 4500 pigs. They are housed in sheds with recycled rubber walls to 1.2 meters and the roof is an igloo shaped tarp. The pigs come in at 3 weeks old and are grown out for 4 months. They run on a bedding of rice hulls and straw. Straw is cut and baled after the summer and winter crops on the farm, and stored for use. It is then used as the bed-ding along with rice hulls from Deniliquin. Rice hulls is a by product of the processing of rice for human consumption. After the 4 month period when the pigs go, the sheds are cleaned out and the litter from the sheds is composted to use on the farms cropping or pasture paddocks.This process eliminates the burning of stubble. This process also means that less fertilizer is used on paddocks. The composted litter is far better for the soil than fertilizer, it builds up the structure of the soil and it has better water saving structure.

The stand out elements in this application was the willingness to take a leadership role and prove that vision, persistence can shift farming behaviors in a sustainable direction. The passion for this project and its results shine through. The partnership with local agron-omist and with the farmers that purchase the compost is practical and effective partner-ship. What’s even better is the partnerships with the garden-ers that come back yearly for their trailer load of compost.

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organic Collection Kerbside serviceCooma- Monaro Shire Council

Coffs Coast Trims Waste from the Hem up

Coffs Harbour Council

The overall aim of the project is to max-imise waste reduction, reuse and recycle and to minimise the amount of potentially reusable, recyclable and recoverable ma-terials being disposed of to landfill and to effectively manage the long term viability waste practices in the Shire. In the first two months of operation with the new 3 bin system Cooma-Monaro Shire Council were able to divert more than 114 tonnes of food and garden waste to “Coompost Farm” for processing. This equates to around 6 full truckloads of waste material in two months. In addition to this they have collected 25 tonnes more of dry recycla-bles and landfilled 53 tonnes less of resid-ual waste based on the same period for 2014. These results speak for themselves.

Since 2009, Coffs Coast Waste Service domestic kerbside diversion rates have approached 80% (well above the region-al LGA average), positioning Coffs Coast LGAs amongst the State’s best recyclers. Coffs Harbour City Council remains com-mitted to working towards a zero-waste tar-get. However, ‘the last 20%’ is proving to be the most challenging, and new thinking has been required. In 2014, CCWS also com-pleted a comprehensive clothing collection trial- the first of its kind in Australia. Previ-ous audits revealed that up to 8% of waste going to landfill was textiles/clothing, and Councils wanted to determine what could potentially be recovered through collection as part of the commingled kerbside fort-nightly service. Results were very positive, and a proposal for a permanent service will be reviewed in 2015, with a potnetial yearly removal of 500T.W

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GoInG Green eduCaTIon aWardGrow and GiveMount Austin High School

In November 2013 the MAHS farm was con-verted from a livestock based “Sheep Show-ing” enterprise to a plant based “Vegetable Garden” enterprise. The idea was to provide staff and students with healthy food that could be used in the Food Technology department or purchased via the canteen or directly from the school farm. It was also to help educate students in the simplicity of growing fresh vegetables and then how to utilise those vegetables. MAHS started partnerships with other community organisations. We collect-ed unused newspapers from Tolland News-agency, scraps from the Tolland IGA and MI-CAH House. In spring the students planted over 4000 plants of corn, zucchini, apple cucumbers, watermelons rockmelons and pumpkins. Since the start we have been do-nating fresh produce to local agencies MI-CAH house who cater for the homeless and The Uniting Church Bread Ministry who oper-ate a free open pantry twice a week.

What a truly amazing initiative! Definitely one that could, and should, be shared so it can hopefully be replicated throughout other areas. It’s great to see teacher and students work together to promote environmental education and provide practical hands-on activities that focus on sustainability. Will be interesting to see how this project grows - definite potential for continual development.

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sustainable living WeekRotary Club of Orange

Waste Compliance, Waste Management & environmental education

Port Stephens Council

Sustainable Living Week aims to provide the Orange and district community with opportunities to learn how to improve: energy and water use efficiency, waste reduction techniques. This was accom-plished through a series of hands on workshops, audits and challenges focus-ing on sustainable cooking, reducing en-ergy bills, garden workshops and various demonstrations involving wind and solar power. An innovative invention as a re-sult of Sustainable Living Week was the chook tractor raffle, a great idea on how to produce eggs and fertilize your lawn. Schools were encouraged to become involved in activities with the CSIRO Science Education Team inviting over 1400 students from 12 local schools to participate in a range of programs.

Port Stephens Council provides a number of education program that aim to provide a whole of Council, strategic approach. The major focus of the education programs are Waste Compliance, Waste Management and Environmental Education and the goal is to deliver sustainability through solid educa-tional outcomes. Our environmental educa-tion program also addresses issues of ma-rine debris and the importance of preserving our aquatic environment. This is achieved through awareness programs, presentation nights, school programs and working with other government and external entities. The one key achievement of our councils’ en-vironmental education programs is that we have been able to balance Compliance with Education.From the data collected, there is an obvious change in attitude in the gener-al community and a significant reduction in waste disposal and illegal dumping.

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HabITaT and WIldlIfe GuardIansHIP aWardTomakin Wetlands ProjectMogo Aboriginal Lands Council

The work site situated on the Tomaga River site bordering Tomaga River Caravan Park suf-fered from severe bank erosion causing a loss of at least 2m of river bank in some areas. The erosion occurs over a distance of 164m where the bank varies in height from 0.4m-1.2m. The area, which historically would have had mangroves growing on the shore, was left exposed to wave action from southerly winds and motor boats. The toe of the bank was actively eroding causing riparian vegeta-tion and the remains of a midden of the river bank to fall into the river. 0.3 ha of aquatic plants established. Over the course of res-toration 600 grey mangroves (Avicennia Ma-rina var. Australasica) were propagated and planted, 12 Aboriginal rangers have built their capacity to manage bank erosion and pro-tect middens, and the Tomakin community have been involved and educated. A num-ber have subesqently began planning the same works in other areas along the river.

The project shows good local community collaboration in restoring an eroded coastal area. The submission was in line with the Aboriginal ranger team being guardians of wildlife (fish species) using the mangrove area to restore habitat.

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Cabarita beach dunecare and Hastings Point dunecare

Protect and Grow ProgramWingecarribee Shire Council

Members of the Cabarita Beach and Hast-ings Point Dunecare groups work tirelessly to protect the coastal dunes of Maggies Beach by ensuring that they remain sta-ble, free of weeds and exotic species, and that the diversity of vegetation ensures the survival of its current fauna whilst attract-ing new species. As a result of this on-going project to increase the biodiversity the number of bird species observed at Hastings Point reached 173 in 2014. Six species of rare orchids have been found at Maggies Beach. At Cabarita Beach the ratio of plants which survive after their in-itial planting has incresed from 40% five years ago to approximately 70%. This has been attributed to improved planting methods of students through education, the involvement of locals who help carry water bottles to planting sites and the in-stallation of taps by Tweed Shire Council.

Wingecarribee Shire Council’s Protect and Grow program is setting new benchmarks in biodiversity management. Not only will the project produce the state’s first integrated vegetation mapping and information tool, but it will also set the standard in cooperation be-tween environmental groups, and create new understanding in species management. The Vegetation Map will draw all data held by the NSW OEH into one interactive and integrated product. Protect and Grow is also proactive. After bushfires in late 2013, it became ap-parent the region’s koala population was po-tentially much greater than anyone realised. Very quickly, the Koala Conservation project was established and investigations began into what is the least-known colony in the state. The Bushcare Program integrates the efforts of community volunteers with that of the Council to manage more than 4000 hec-tares of remnant bushland, as well as care for a number of significant watercourses.

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susTaInable sYsTeMs aWardsustainable solutionsParkes Shire Council

Parkes Shire Council is committed to a sustain-able future for its community and has initiated a combination of projects to achieve this goal. PSC has reduced its own ecological/carbon footprint leading by example to implement pro-jects that support sustainability. Council com-missioned a Sustainable Energy Plan that in-cluded installing solar panels on each of PSC’s operations buildings (five largest energy usage sites) with Council on track to have 1Mw of pan-els within a few years. This solar initiative was extended to the community, pioneering a bulk buy scheme, making solar affordable to the community. A combined 527 households and businesses took up the offer. A Carbon Reduc-tion Project in partnership with City of Canada Bay Council has delivered solar panels at PeakHill Pool, a Stormwater Harvesting Project to irrigate open spaces within Parkes, community tree planting and sustainable school network and a Schools Eco Day.

The strengths of this entry include lots of partnerships with individuals and organisations both local and distant which have and will continue to provide a sound foundation for progress and encouragement and ideas to keep the whole process running into the future. Encouraging a change of attitude throughout the organisation and through that to the community.

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Making orange‘s Water supply sustainable

Orange City Council

naroo aged Care HostelWarialda Community

The City of Orange received a huge wake up call 6 years ago when the re-gion, (and State) was in severe droughtand the City’s water supply was down to 23% of capacity. Strict water restrictions were introduced and the City, known for lush parks, gardens and sporting fields, was fast becoming a dust bowl. Measures were introduced or are being instigated includng the installation of a storm water harvesting system which at full capacity had the ability to harvest up to 20 mega litres per day, the construction of 4 urban wetlands allows naturally filtered storm water, (non potable) to be pumped intostorage dams where it will be used in purple pipes, the upgrade and height-ening of the main wall at Suma Park Dam and construction of a 35km pipeline from the Macquarrie River.

Naroo Aged Care Hostel houses 34 elderly people. The new area has several innova-tive and energy saving ideas, implemented. There is a partially covered outdoor area on the western side, where the sun warms the area beautifully throughout the mornings. In inclement weather, there is a self-regulating roof which opens and closes according to the weather. The garden has been land-scaped according to the flow of the land and is terraced, which allows water to seep through the many layers so that very little is lost. The success of this gardening style was recently shown, as the residents en-tered their produce and flowers in the local Agricultural Show. Naroo residents took out every Flower Arranging award and also the largest butternut pumpkin and gramma. This was a great source of pride within the com-munity and gives the residents greater in-centives for next year’s gardening programs.

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building Community sustainability in eurobodalla Eurobodalla Shire Council

‘Building Community Sustainability’ has been a ground-breaking community based project with a focus on both prac-tical solutions to saving energy and water and community engagement. The project involved the sustainability audit and simple retrofit of 58 Council owned buildings in-cluding Community Halls, Libraries, Pools, Sporting Complexes, RFS Sheds, De-pots and Function Centres. Each building was given a sustainability star rating and a customised sustainability report. Simple energy and water efficiency actions were completed during the audit. As a result of the retrofits completed, these community buildings have saved 7,359 kL, 474MWh and 4553L of bottled gas on an annualbasis. This equates to over $159,000 per year in running costs and more importantly 553 tonnes of CO2.

CulTural HerITaGe aWardeskbank House and Museum Cultural Heritage Precinct

Eskbank House has been a house muse-um since 1966. It’s displays were static and boring and visitor numbers were low. The Eskbank House Team consulted with professionals and the community and real-ised that an energetic program could bring Eskbank House back to life as well as pro-vide a much needed cultural centre for the community. A five year strategic plan was created which included exhibitions, work-shops, performances and events to insti-gate change. Since the begining of the pro-ject there has been an increase of 300% in visitation and takings have increased.The number of events have increased from one exhibition and one event in 2010 to twen-ty one events including exhibitions, work-shops, performances and events in 2014.

This project has really changed the outlook and focus of the house and museum in a positive manner. It is fantastic to see the development of new and innovative events and the signficant increase is use and visitor patronage. Well done.

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time and assistance in hosting the 2015 blue star awards regional Weekend.

CulTural HerITaGe aWardCaring for the ancestors, Wallaga lake aboriginal Cemetery Project Eurobodalla Shire Council

This project has identified Wallaga Lake Ab-original cemetery as one of the oldest [first known burial 1895] and largest Aboriginal cemeteries in NSW [171 known burials and 155 possible additional burials]. It is re-markably still in operation today. Prior to the commencement of this project there were believed to be approximately 50 people bur-ied at the Cemetery. The aim of the project was to identify, mak and conserve burial sites and improve the community’s capacity to use and maintain the cemetery into the future. The multidisciplinary project (archival, oralhistory and geophysical) was initiated in 2011 in an initial project which identified 166 possible graves through a GPR survey and developed a burial register containing 187 names through oral and documented his-tory. Many of these graves were unknown and/or unmarked.

This is a fantastic initiative. The long term benefits from this project, from both a conservation and management perspective, as well as community, are fantastic. The project was well thought out and had clear defined aims/ goals. These were well managed and the results were fantastic.

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Green’s Gunyah Museum Lockhart & District Historical Society

1915 lithgow City band’s Commemoration of the anZaC Centenary

After flash floods in 2010 and 2012 which inundated the Museum and Gal-lery with up to 1metre of water in theadministration and exhibition spaces the Society decided to redevelop the Muse-um complex. It was decided to build a new complex above flood level and upgrade the old building The project was complet-ed in early 2015 and it now provides a modern contemporary facility which in-cludes a gallery which houses the Doris Golder Wool Art and an exhibition space which houses the nationally significant Brookong Exhibition. The 1930’s building became exhibition space dedicated to our town’s early development and was sym-pathetically upgraded with a new floor, new lining and painted throughout. The museum is now a destination for tourists.

“1915” is a collaborative effort developed by Lithgow City Band as a commemora-tion of the ANZAC Centenary. Over the past year the production has involved dis-parate groups and individuals from the wid-er Lithgow Community coming together to demonstrate the power of music to build the fabric of community. It involved the writing, by a Lithgow band member, of an original play that re-imagines the story of 10 Lithgow town bandsmen who enlisted in 1915 to serve as bandsmen stretcher bearers. The play was involved local peo-ple and was directed by a local dramatist. It has inspired the composition of a won-derful stand-alone piece of music called“The Lads from Lithgow” written for brass by Ian Munro and performed by the Lithgow City Band as an integral part of the production.

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enVIronMenTal aCHIeVeMenT aWard bill JoshOrange

Bill, is the very passionate Community Envi-ronmental Engagement Project Officer for Or-ange and Bathurst.Over the past 12 months Bill has organised and managed 107 com-munity events, many on weekends outside of work hours. These events have executed the planting of 3282 native plants. If you times that by 8 years (project duration), the num-ber of plants would surpass 26,000. The im-provement in biodiversity also has the spin off effect of enhancing water flow and quality, im-proving aquatic biodiversity and native fauna habitat. Bill, through his community engage-ment activities, has encouraged 1238 local volunteers in the last 12 months to join him on his community days. Although not a primary target Bill’s project has provided much need social interaction and capacity building for local community members especially those with social problems, physical and mental disabilities and troubled secondary students.

Great submission, it appears that Bill undertakes a lot of environmental activities with his volunteers that are above and beyond. Clearly he is very committed to the goals of his position to have achieved the level of activity and events in one year that he has coordinated with cooperation and commitment of his volunteer team.

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sister Carmel WallisWagga Wagga

Maree ryanBerrigan

Sister Carmel Wallis is a well known and respected member of the Wagga Wag-ga community through her involvement in ErinEarth, a sustainable house and garden. Sister Carmel educates resi-dents and school children in the wonder of our universe and our place in it. Sister Carmel engages and educates the full spectrum of our citizens from kindergar-ten students to Nursing Home residents in sustainability and encourages all to connect with the environment and each other. Numerous interstate and interna-tional visitors make it a “must do” during their visit to Wagga Wagga to meet Sis-ter Carmel and take a tour of her brain-child, ErinEarth, to marvel at the beautiful sustainable garden and home she and her band of volunteers have created.

Maree’s environmental journey began by saving possums at the age of 15. She has had a large input into the booklet “The Gar-den and Beyond... A Planting guide to in-crease biodiversity in the house paddock.” This books acknowledges Maree for her practical knowledge gained from estab-lishing local native plants in her own house paddock on her farm. This booklet has been distributed to a large area of the Rive-rina. Over many years Maree has given up her valuable time to work with our schools, encouraging them to look after our environ-ment. Whether it be planting seedlings that Maree has grown from collected seed. In-digenous garden (edible foods) or a Road-side Cleanup to reduce the amount of litter on them. Maree is a long serving invaluable member of The Berrigan Conservation & Tidy Towns Committee. Maree also holds workshops on her farm, one of her favour-ites is showing how to hand direct seeding.

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YounG enVIronMenTal aCHIeVeMenT aWardGiles TennantCoffs Harbour

Giles Tennant, a Year 12 student led a team of like-minded students to present the Bish-op Druitt College Environment group paper and video presentation at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature World Parks Congress in Sydney in 2015. The congress is a global forum on protected ar-eas and is held every 10 years. The school worked with NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service mentors investigating ‘Healthy Parks, Healthy People’. The group examined how school students engage with the environ-ment and protected areas, the health bene-fits they might gain and how to work towards a healthier balance between nature-based and technology-driven activities. Giles was an instrumental leader of the ‘My River Pro-ject’ applying for $15 000 grant and led the establishment of the Bush Regeneration and Frog Habitat Protection project.

Giles Tennant has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to conser-vation and sustainability through his leadership, initiative and passion. He has achieved environmental goals as a founding member of the Bishop Druitt College Environment Group and also as a community activist for ‘Empty the Tanks’, a group working for marine mammals. Giles understands the impor-tance of partnerships and community outreach as evidenced by the carefully crafted messages provided in the vid-eo produced for the 2014 World Parks Congress. Giles is truly ‘thinking globally and acting locally’.

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fingal Head Public school

berrigan Public school

Fingal Head Public School (FHPS) have been involved in a ‘hands on’ environ-mental education, dune protection and bush regeneration program for 2 dec-ades. They have developed a sense of stewardship for the local beaches and environment. This stays with them longafter their years at Fingal Head Public School so that the community has many knowledgeable caring young adults who have benefited from this program. This school in conjunction with Fingal Head Coastcare has an ongoing hands on en-vironmental education, bush regenera-tion and dune protection program. They have established a signposted bush tucker garden and the students provideguided walks through this garden. They are propagating and plant-ing rare, threatened and endangered plants especially the vine for the en-dangered Richmond Birdwing Butterfly.

The Berrigan Public school has a long focus on educating their students in the care of the environment. The 88 students are ac-tive every day in collecting for their worm farm and reducing litter. The students have been involved in the weed warriors program where they bred horehound moth and re-leased them in the local native corridor to help eradicate horehound weed. They have joined in the Creative Catchments Kids Program which provided opportunities for the students to develop creative solutions to land and water issues in the local envi-ronment. They participate in National Tree planting day every year, planting trees in the local bush corridor and in the last two years creating the indigenous species planting in their new learning garden. Students also participated in clean up Australia Day 2015. The students are made aware of water use by having 4 litre ice cream containers un-der the drinking bubblers to catch any ex-cess water, to then be put on the gardens.

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CoMMunITY enVIronMenTal aCHIeVeMenT aWardsmall farms networkKiamaThe Small Farms Network is a leader in sus-tainable land management; achieving sig-nificant biodiversity, social and agricultural outcomes by connecting like-minded land-holders who are passionate and committed about creating change across the landscape and within their local community. The Small Farms Network has been instrumental in cre-ating, building and supporting the local farm-ing community over the past 11 years through the development of local industry networks, organizing various social and training events and connecting landholders. The Network coordinates on average 15 workshops and educates 350 people annually on a variety of environmental, agricultural and food pro-duction topics. The Network has worked with local landholders to establish and sup-port a number of community networks.

Unlike most submissions this one is a major project with far reaching achievements because of a broad network developed by Andrew Britton. Its main achievement is to establish a major cohort of farmers managing small landholdings and enabling them to adopt practices which rejuvenates the land and leads to more sustainable farming.

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australian ecosystems foundation IncLithgow

The Maitland Community

In 2014 Australian Ecosystems Founda-tion Incorporated (AEFI) took a new step with the formation of their Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander work and training crew. They have been working across a diverse area within the Lithgow area and a number of other locations within NSW for over a decade. In 2014 AEFI put in for funding to repair the riparian zone of the unnamed McKellar’s Park creek. This small creek is at the head of the Sydney catchment area and it runs into Farmers Creek and ultimately to the Sydney catchment area. The creek had been neglected for many years and was over-run with willows. It had also been degraded following numerous fire events and subsequent flood events over the years.

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On April 21, 2015 the Maitland local gov-ernment area was devastated by strong winds and large amounts of rainfall. What resulted was nothing short of devastating with large areas underwater and com-munities cut off for days by floodwater. The damage caused by this storm was immense. The SES, Fire Services, Police and many other agencies and volunteers worked together to pull the Maitland com-munity through. The spirit and teamwork shown by the residents, businesses, and volunteers to both protect the local envi-ronment and repair the damage caused by the Maitland storm is nothing short of astounding. Within days of floodwaters re-ceding rubbish and fallen branches were removed, and road, school, power and tel-ecommunication networks were restored.

oVerall CoasTal susTaInabIlITY aWardnarooma

Narooma are leading the way in terms of litter reduction. They have a very dedicated group of volun-teers collecting marine debris and logging the data online. A unique feature is their “what’s under the wharf” display where creatures and littered items are brought up by scu-ba diver from the water for people to observe. Narooma are also one of the first in the state to use con-trolled cold burns in weed control.

Judges comments Judges comments Judges com-ments Judges comments Judges comments Judges comments Juwdges com-ments Judges comments Judges comments Judges comments Judges com-ments Judges comments

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fingal Head

Cabarita beach and Hastings Point

A previous winner in this cate-gory, Fingal Head is a very sup-portive community who believe strongly in education. Fingal Head Public School has an out-standing bush tucker garden which the students maintain and regularly eat from. The asses-sor had quite the task keeping a straight face while licking leaves and eating numerous berries.

Cabarita and Hastings Point share a spectacular stretch of Maggies beach in the Tweed area. They are each regenerating the bush land leading into the beach and have just about connected in the mid-dle. Cabarita are also leading the way in sustainability with the com-merce asking shop owner to sign up to renewable energy compa-nies who give back to the com-munity. They have a very dedicat-ed group who sew boomerang bags for the community to use

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oVerall reGIonal susTaInabIlITY aWardorange

Orange is an excellent example of a regional town working towards sustainability goals. They have an outstanding volunteer force, which was exhibited earlier with rotary sponsoring science and sustaina-bility education week for the whole community, they have learnt from the past and effectively drought proofed the town with a range of initiatives. The town also has a rich cultural history with the mov-ing and restoration of Banjo Patter-son’s Emmaville cottage to Orange.

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berriganBerrigan are a small community achieving huge results! From the school children tree planting trees in the community, to the mens shed building garden beds and providing restoration help, to the Tidy Towns Committee designing and implementing an incredibly effective litter reduction strategy, to the RSL creating an incredible moving ANZAC celebratory din-ner. Berrigan is all about supporting each other to achieve great things.

Entries are now open for the 2016 Blue Star Sustainability Awards. To enter or find out more information please click here. If you are unsure which category your pro-ject could be entered in or have any questions at all please don’t hesitat to contact Keep NSW Beautiful.

awards@knswb.org.au

We look forward to celebrating your entries and sharing stories again on 4th and 5th November in beautiful Orange.

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