Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to celebrate Australia's tidiest town. Barmera, in my electorate, is a Riverland town of around 3,000 people situated on the picturesque banks of Lake Bonney. An attempt to save water by installing a temporary regulator to block Lake Bonney from the main river channel led to both environmental and social problems for the town throughout the millennial drought. The town's turnaround in fortune arguable began with the removal of this regulator in December 2010. Barmera is a markedly different place less than seven years later.

At the recent Keep Australia Beautiful national Tidy Towns awards, Barmera won a suite of awards, including the Dame Phyllis Frost Litter Prevention, Waste Management and Resource Recovery award; the Environmental Education award, which it won jointly with Horsham; the Young Legends award; and the Community Action and Wellbeing award. Congratulations to the town on each of these achievements. But, undoubtedly, the biggest win to note was that Barmera also took out the award of overall winner and can now proudly declare itself our nation's tidiest town. I congratulate the community on this amazing achievement. It is a testament to that community and to its volunteers for their efforts in cultivating a vibrant, attractive, engaging and sustainable town that is an example to communities nationwide.