Hedland’s sustainability wins award

Port and South Hedland have been crowned this year’s winners in the Tidy Towns environmental sustainability category.

Care for Hedland chairwoman and former Town of Port Hedland Mayor Kelly Howlett was on hand at the ceremony in Perth at the weekend to accept the prize, along with representatives Melissa Wood and Julie Arif.

In her acceptance speech, Ms Howlett said the community was blessed to be able to showcase Port Hedland and all it had to offer and to put it on the national stage.

“We have turtles on our beach, we have dolphins in the harbour year-round, juvenile green sea turtles … and also the manta rays and the migratory whales that come up, do their calving and go back again,” she said.

Hedland was last crowned the WA Tidy Town in 2009, but failed to receive a prize last year.

The Town entered every category in the competition this year, coming out on top in the division which recognises outstanding community achievements in adaptation to environmental change.

The Town of Port Hedland’s entry this year was based on the achievements particularly by Care for Hedland, which has been working on pro-active grassroots community environmental activism programs for the past 13 years.

Some of the achievements by the group to benefit Hedland listed by the Town in their application this year include the success of the 2015-16 turtle monitoring program, the turtle talk programs and the successful beach and town clean-ups.

The Town also referenced the community group’s work on waste management and recycling, stating that the monthly recycle day events saw an average of 30,000 bottles collected.

The only other Pilbara winner was Paraburdoo, which won the Young Legends division.