MEDIA RELEASE
EMBARGOED
3.30pm AEDT 12.30pm AWST
Monday 18 November 2013
Media Contact Peter McLean
Phone 0416 227 158
Email peter@kab.org.au
City of Marion wins Australian Sustainable City 2013
The crowning of the City of Marion as the Keep Australia Beautiful, Australian Sustainable City
2013 has been welcomed as a well-deserved win for the city, which saw the South Australian
city Deputy Mayor David Speirs accept the award at an event in the City of Cockburn, WA this
morning.
The Award recognises City of Marion achievements in community and civic beautification,
presentation, health, wellbeing and pride. It also recognises the partnerships between
government, business, industry and local community networks.

The City also took home the Heritage and Culture category award for ensuring their
cultural history is preserved and celebrated by a biennial free community festival that
attracted more than 7000 visitors in March this year. The event highlighted the diversity
of Marion with song and dance by diverse groups from countries such as Germany,
India, Brazil, Africa and India.
The Sustainable Cities judge was particularly impressed how the city preserved its
indigenous and European heritage. The City of Marion is one of only 360 organisations
across Australia to make a public commitment to strengthening relationships with
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people after it recently launched its Reconciliation
Action Plan. Actions include expanding consultation with the Kaurna community, using
indigenous place names for upgraded parks and acknowledging country on emails and
stationery. It also reinforces economic and health partnerships that support the local
indigenous community.

The Young Legends category, for delivering 40 waste education presentations on
recycling, waste minimisation and food waste to local schools and kindergartens, where
student leadership groups are empowered to identify specific waste issues and plan
relevant actions.
Indigenous youth program, Ngaityo Wodli, engaged with young people though the use of
environmental themes. Sessions focussed on food, health and culture as a means of
engaging with youth on values towards caring for country and a connection to Kaurna
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country. Fifty five students learnt about culture, cooking with native foods, growing native
foods and participated in an organic gardening project.

The Highly Commended award in Environmental Innovation and Protection which
recognises their well-equipped Council nursery that propagated some 13,000 indigenous
plants last year for five playground redevelopments, two Planet Ark Tree day sites,
community giveaways and various verge enhancements.

A Highly Commended Water Conservation award for sustainable water management
within communities. The city has combined innovative water conservation and water reuse initiatives at the private, industrial and municipal levels, benefiting society and
nature.
National Executive Officer of Keep Australia Beautiful, Peter McLean said, “it’s pleasing to see
another year of high calibre National finalists. Each finalist exhibited strong innovation and
partnerships which contributed to outstanding community sustainability outcomes.”
Cameron Little, the National Sustainable Cities Judge said “these awards form part of an
incredibly powerful project and impressive amount of community involvement goes into them.
The City of Marion performed extremely well, and it was difficult to separate the top two or three
finalists.”
The awards allow for excellence in metropolitan sustainability projects around Australia to come
together to share best practice, success, as well as challenges. During the event, each finalist
was allocated time to present their project, followed by a tour of the City of Cockburn, the 2012
Sustainable Cities title holder.
Special guest for the awards was Josh Byrne from Gardening Australia. Born in Esperance on
the south coast of Western Australia, Josh spent his early childhood years surrounded by some
of Australia’s best coast and bushland. He is an environmental scientist with a passion for
sustainable gardening, appropriate technology and innovative environmental design.
KESAB environmental solutions Executive Director John Phillips OAM said that “the City of
Marion presented a strong submission highlighting the complexity of managing a large and
diverse urban Council specific to environmental sustainability and community health and
wellbeing. The submission highlighted commitment to sustainability through projects including
Hallett Cove Community Library Centre, community grants, hard waste collection, food waste
recycling, protection of biodiversity and coast care, and partnering neighbouring council City of
Holdfast Bay with a $123 mill stormwater management plan.”
Having gone head to head with six other leading lights of sustainability from around the country,
City of Marion will hold onto their title until the 2014 awards. The City of Cockburn earned the
right to host the 2013 event after taking out the Overall Australian title in Kogarah NSW, last
year.
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The Australian Sustainable Cities Awards encourage, motivate and celebrate the local
sustainability achievements of urban communities across Australia.
Keep Australia Beautiful Australian Sustainable Cities Awards Winners 2013
Category
Winner
Overall Winner
City of Marion
Highly Commended
Sponsor
South Australia
Community Action and
Partnerships
Launceston
Dame Phyllis Frost Litter
Prevention
Brisbane City Council
City of Swan
Queensland
Western Australia
Resource Recovery and
Waste Management
City of Swan
Environmental Innovation and
Protection
Canberra Indian Myna City of Marion
Action Group
South Australia
Australian Capital
Territory
Water Conservation
City of Canada Bay
City of Marion
New South Wales
South Australia
City of Moreland
Launceston
Victoria
Tasmania
City of Marion
City of Canada Bay
South Australia
New South Wales
City of Marion
City of Canada Bay
South Australia
New South Wales
Energy Innovation
Heritage and Culture
Young Legends
PSF
Tasmania
PSF
PSF
Western Australia
ENDS
EDITOR’S NOTES:
For further information about the judge’s visit, please contact:
National Media Comment:
Peter McLean, National Executive Officer, Keep Australia Beautiful
peter@kab.org.au Mob: 0416 227 158
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National Media Contact:
Alice Morgan, Communications Officer, Keep Australia Beautiful
alice@kab.org.au Tel: 02 8626 9396
About the Australian Sustainable Communities Awards
Keep Australia Beautiful seeks to lead, challenge and inspire all Australians to strive for a sustainable and
litter free environment. It does this through research, communications programs and awards programs.
Its national awards are known as the Australian Sustainable Communities Awards which consist of the
Tidy Towns, Sustainable Cities, and Clean Beaches Awards. Each awards program commences with
state and territory awards and culminates in a national Grand Final event.
The Sustainable Cities Awards are open to metropolitan communities. Our major cities are home to 77%
of the Australian population, and have absorbed 80% of the population growth over the last 40 years.
They are heavily exposed to the impacts of climate change. While our cities are among the most liveable
in the world, they lag behind on some aspects of sustainability when it comes to energy consumption, car
dependence and equity, with a stark and growing divide between the opportunities available to residents
of the inner suburbs and those available to residents in outer urban areas.
About Keep Australia Beautiful
Keep Australia Beautiful is the national peak body on litter prevention. With over four decades of
experience in engaging Australians to care for their local environments, (not to be confused with the
organisation Clean Up Australia Day) KAB Programs include Sustainable Cities, Tidy Towns, Clean
Beaches, National Litter Index, The LITTLE Committee, National Bin Network and Keep Australia
Beautiful Week in August.
The KAB National website is kab.org.au where all information on the organisation can be accessed
including the National Litter Index which is Australia’s only independent nation-wide litter research.
The Australian Sustainable Cities Awards are sponsored by
The Australian Food and Grocery Council’s Packaging Stewardship Forum. The Packaging Stewardship
Forum of the Australian Food and Grocery Council, works with partners across the nation to deliver
industry recycling, litter reduction and education programs on behalf of its members, Australia's major
beverage companies and their packaging suppliers. The Forum's highly successful Do the Right Thing
anti-litter campaign is recognised by more than 80% of people. More than 400 towns and cities around
Australia are now taking the Do the Right Thing message to their communities.
About trophy
The Sustainable Cities and Clean Beaches 2013 trophies were hand carved and painted by Wez
Champion of Loutky Puppets, using reclaimed wood. Wez’s workshop is in the same building as KABNA.
Wez uses Czech carving techniques blended with Australian exotic woods and finishing techniques. He
believes in a world where craftsmanship is priority, where individuality is an asset and a new standard of
art is passionately created, passed on and treasured. The plaques were created by NPD The Print &
Framing Gallery. http://www.loutkypuppets.com/
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