Congratulations to local Tidy Town Awards winners for 2020
Published on 13 October 2020
Hastings has been announced as the Tidy Town of the Year for 2020 at the Keep Victoria Beautiful Tidy Towns – Sustainable Community Awards on Saturday 10 October.
The following projects from the Mornington Peninsula are the Victorian State Award winners or have been Highly Commended in their categories for 2020:
Education Award – Winner
St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School
‘The Sea is my Best Friend’ program
The ‘Sea is our Best Friend” program aims to connect and increase the community’s learnings through the lens of the environment at Westernport Bay. This year, students further embedded their knowledge of the local area through fortnightly beach walks to Woolleys Beach. Working alongside an Indigenous specialist teacher, the students engaged in learning more about the Boon Wurrung people’s perspectives through onsite visits.
Community Award – Winner
Mornington Peninsula Shire
Mallacoota Evacuation
Local agencies assisted up to 4,000 people who were evacuated from Mallacoota beach. The collaboration was with the Military, Mornington Peninsula Shire, Victoria Police, SES, CFA, Red Cross, Victorian Council of Churches Emergencies Ministry and the RSPCA.
Community Award – Highly Commended
Boomerang Bags Mount Martha
Scrubs for COVID-19 medical staff
Volunteers from Mt Martha’s Boomerang Bags group heard local nursing staff needed more scrubs. After using funds raised from selling their Boomerang Bags to obtain the appropriate material, the team sewed scrubs for the nurses at Rosebud Hospital and a doctor in Frankston Hospital. The group have so far made over 50 hats, tops, pants and laundry bags for nursing staff.
Environment Award – Winner
Dolphin Research Institute
‘I see I care’ marine ambassadors
The innovative ‘I sea I care’ Marine Ambassador program started in 2000 by Dolphin Research Institute to show Victorians ‘what lives around our coast is too precious to lose’. The program focuses on putting sustainability as a high priority for schools to create a longer lasting impact. The program has grown from 25 schools in 2011 to almost 100 this year across the Melbourne Metropolitan area, with some participating for over 12 years.
Litter Award – Winner
Josie Jones
Map of Australia
Josie worked with Melbourne Zoo to make a large sculpture for the Plastic or Planet Exhibition with National Geographic. Josie made a map of Australia out of 16kg of litter from Rye, including 5,500 cigarette butts. The map educated thousands of people on littering.
Litter Award – Highly Commended
Advance Community College
‘A-Team’
VCAL students aged 15 to 17 years old, participated in a student leadership program through Family Life. The program saw students identifying numerous social and environmental issues impacting Hastings. This resulted in the students calling themselves the ‘A-Team’ and tackling littering and illegal dumping in their local reserve and playgrounds. The ‘A-Team’ partnered with various community partners (Mornington Peninsula Shire, Good Shepherd, Advance Community College and Family Life) and found ways to make a positive environmental impact on their community.
Waste Award – Highly Commended
Rye Community House
Zero Waste Festival
Rye's Zero Waste Festival was attended by over 150 people and was hosted by the Rye Community House as part of their monthly Sustainable Sunday event. The Festival brough together Crop Swap Rye, the Southern Peninsula Repair Cafe and Rye Boomerang Bags, as well as a Shire-supported second-hand market, zero waste businesses, a clothes swap, eco themed face paint and a local plant guru.
Indigenous Culture – Highly Commended
Mornington Peninsula Shire’s Youth Services
‘Rap4Rap’ project
The Shire’s Youth Services team with support from the Shire’s Warringinee Group organised the Rap4RAP project as part of their commitment to hear the voices of young people when developing the Reconciliation Action Plan. The aim was to develop a rap promoting young indigenous and non-indigenous voices about Reconciliation and to raise awareness of the positive Indigenous perspective on the Peninsula. A diverse bunch of talented young people teamed up with Indigenous Hip Hop Project to develop lyrics to the Rap4RAP project.
Young Legend Award – Winner
Westernport Secondary College’s Harrison Hansen
Harry has been a consistent support for Westernport Secondary College and the local community. He has been involved in mentoring Year 3 and 4 students to support a successful transition into secondary schooling, supporting
school community initiatives, running Year 7 Camp and much more. Harry embodies all school values with every interaction and presents intelligence, youth and an extremely positive image.
Dame Phyllis Frost Award
Jacqueline Salter
Jacqueline Salter is a valued Mornington Peninsula Shire staff member and an outstanding community member. Jacqueline has been passionate about protecting the precious environment since she was in Grade 4. Jacqueline’s role as a Mornington Peninsula Landcare Facilitator has seen her take on the role of Project Leader for a new 3-year project "Greens Bush to Arthurs Seat Biolink" involving revegetation, protection of remnant vegetation and feral control on around 250ha of private land on the Mornington Peninsula.
Keep Victoria Beautiful Gift Fund
Mount Martha Farmers Market
Sustainable Table
The Keep Victoria Beautiful Gift Fund was established to encourage and support community groups to get started with new community projects. Each year the Gift Fund seeks to award prizes to a small number of grass roots projects delivering sustainability outcomes, reduce litter and build capacity in local communities.
The Mount Martha Farmers Market received $1,000 through the Gift Fund. The market is delivered by environmental not-for-profit Sustainable Table and feature Mornington Peninsula and Victorian producers.
A feature of this market is Sustainable Table’s commitment to zero-waste which has eliminated all single-use items from the market site. The market successfully operates without any bins, other than compost, and has a ‘Washed Up Not Wasted’ Station for shoppers to wash and return cups, cutlery and crockery supplied. Sustainable Table is also working with producers to transition away from single-use packaging where possible.
To learn more about other winners visit kvb.org.au