The rural community of Williams has won the national 2026 Keep Australia Beautiful Tidy Towns Award.
Williams seized the lions’ share of the awards by scoring the major prize along with awards in three other categories at a ceremony in Launceston, Tasmania, on May 16.
The Great Southern town, with a population just over 1,000, impressed judges by achieving an extraordinary level of local engagement in a range of social and sustainability initiatives.
The Williams Wildlife Warriors won the Behaviour Change and Engagement Award for action to care for local bushland and waterways which involves the Williams Community Resource Centre, Shire of Williams and almost the entire primary school.
The Little Helpers initiative won the Young Legends title for environmental and community activities.
The Heritage and Culture Award went to the Williams Historical Records Project led by two local women working with scant resources to re-discover and preserve records on the area’s early settlement, local families and changing landscape.
Resource centre dynamo Gemma Haddrick was also highly commended in the Dame Phyllis Frost Local Hero category for addressing the challenges of rural isolation and creating opportunities to bring people of all ages together.
The awards stemmed from a Western Australian tourism initiative in the 1960s and have grown into one of Australia’s longest-running community programs, with more than 4,000 volunteers contributing to projects entered for this year’s awards.
Keep Australia Beautiful Council Chair Elizabeth Carr AM said the awards showed what a community could do by working together to support each other and the local environment.
“Williams was rightly described at the awards as a small but mighty town. They have shown that a community with heart can achieve outstanding innovation and conservation results,” she said.
“The community runs a huge range of activities from engaging primary school students in ecological restoration projects to circular economy op shop programs and commitments to preserving local history.
“One powerhouse pair have devoted about 2,000 hours to preserving historic local records damaged by fire and water.
“By keeping their local identity strong and working together to enhance wellbeing, Williams is an inspiration to communities across Australia.
“Congratulations Williams, you inspire us all!”
As this year’s overall winner, Williams will host the Keep Australia Beautiful National Tidy Towns Awards in 2027. More information on the awards is at Tidy Towns Winners 2026 - Keep Australia Beautiful
DWER media contact – media@dwer.wa.gov.au
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