Tweed Coast beaches dominated this year’s Northern Rivers division of the NSW Clean Beaches awards at a presentation held at Cabarita Surf Club this past week.
Of the 10 awards (category wins and highly commend) handed out by Keep Australia Beautiful Chief Executive Peter Mclean, just one went to the Byron Shire. The winners in each category will go on to the State awards to be announced this week.
Cabarita’s Maggie’s Beach just south of the town scooped the pool with five, while Fingal snared two and Hastings Point one.
Hastings Point dune care group beat the Cabarita Beach/Bogangar group (highly commended) to the coveted Environmental Protection award. Maggie’s Beach won the Community Partnership and Action award ahead of the Fingal Dreamtime beach entry, with the results reversed in the Young Legends division, with Bogangar/Cabarita beach’s Sam Bowkett highly commended and the children of Fingal Public School taking the title.
The Friendly Beach award went to the Byron Main Beach, with Maggie’s Beach highly commended.
But the big award of the day The Clean Beach Challenge award – which looked at the overall beaches – was taken out by Maggie’s Beach, with the Dreamtime team being highly commended for their efforts.
Mr McLean said the awards were not only good recognition for local communities, but also a good way of collecting data on what is going on at local beaches and for groups around Australia to find out what other groups were doing.
Wilson Clark of Fingal Public School said being involved in dune and coast care had been very rewarding, even without the certificates.
“I’ve had a lot of fun planting and watering,” he said.
“Kay and Peter from Dune Care have really helped us a lot – I can’t wait to see how our plants grow.”
Ashley Baldry from Bogangar/Cabarita Beach Dune Care said it was recognition for the whole community and how it works together to look after the place they live and love.
“The Clean Beach awards are a great opportunity to showcase the work done by local residents,” he said.
“It is a good opportunity to raise awareness within the local community and for those outside our community to recognise this is a special place.”
Bogangar Business Association member Katrina Bell said business association totally supports the local dune care group, with many of their members also members of dune care.
She said the whole community should be very proud of the victories which could only showcase the town and encourage more people to come to visit.
