The Mt Buller Alpine Resort has been named one of Victoria’s most sustainable communities, Member for Northern Victoria Region, Candy Broad said today.
Mt Buller Alpine Resort won the Water Conservation Award as part of this year’s Sustainable Communities – Tidy Town Awards ceremony held in Horsham on Saturday night. The awards recognise local efforts to develop sustainable communities, increase tourism and civic pride as well as improve residents’ community participation, social cooperation, public awareness and conservation of their environment.
The Water Conservation Award was won by the Mt Buller and Mt Stirling Alpine Resort Management Board for their Water Reuse Project.
The $3.4 million Water Reuse Project enables waste water to be recycled and treated to Class A standards for use in Mt Buller’s snow making machines. This allows an increase to their snow making capacity by 30%. Two million litres of waste water a day is capable of being recycled by the water treatment plant. The project has fail safes in place with 24 hour monitoring which will ensure treated water will be safe for the environment.
The Mt Buller and Mt Stirling Alpine Resort Management Board also received a Judge’s Commendation for its Mountain Pygmy-Possum Recovery Plan.
The natural habitat of the Mountain Pygmy-Possum is the rock scree or boulderfields of the Alpine or Sub-Alpine regions. It wasn’t until 1996 that a colony of Mountain Pygmy-possums were confirmed to exist on Mt Buller. To protect the colony of this endangered species from loss and fragmentation of habitat and predators, works have been undertaken such as weed and predator control, recreating boulder tunnels, enhancing the habitat and ensuring there is a steady food supply.
“The Mt Buller and Mt Stirling Alpine Resort community have proved its commitment to making the region a great place to live and work. I congratulate all the winners for the fantastic work being done to foster community pride, preserve heritage and protect the environment for future generations,” Ms Broad said.
These are the first Sustainable Communities - Tidy Towns Awards since Keep Australia Beautiful Victoria (KABV) became a part of Sustainability Victoria. The two organisations joined forces in July 2009 and are united in their goal to encourage and reward sustainability across the state.
This year’s other winners are:
- · Lake Boga (Community Pride Award)
- · Yackandandah (Heritage and Culture Award)
- · Ballarat (Pam Keating Environmental Innovation Award)
- · Greater Shepparton City Council (Zero Waste Award)
- · Orbost (Protection of the Environment Award)
- · Moorabool Shire Council, Victoria Police and the Department of Education and Early
Childhood Development (Community Government Partnership Award)
- · Dhurringile & District Landcare Group (Energy Conservation Award)
- · Damascus College - Ballarat (Young Leaders Award)
- · Hastings Primary School - Hastings (Proud Schools Award)
- · Brian Stahl OAM JP (Dame Phyllis Frost Award)
- · Rutherglen (Small Town Achiever Award)
- · Beechworth (Overall Sustainable Communities – Tidy Towns Award).
For more information visit www.kabv.vic.gov.au