Shire’s work on mental health and wellbeing recognised in national awards ceremony

The Shire of Narrogin has won a national award in recognition of its work in mental health and wellbeing.

The community health, wellbeing and interest award was announced by the Keep Australia Beautiful Council at an event held online last Friday, with Narrogin named as a joint winner.

Running nationally since 1990, the Australian Sustainable Communities Tidy Towns Awards encompass a wide range of projects focusing on community cohesion and action.

Last week’s win comes after Narrogin won the overall WA Tidy Towns sustainable communities award last year, with the town contesting for the national prize this year.

While that honour ultimately went to the town of Hastings, about 75km south of Melbourne, Narrogin was recognised as a leading town when it came to mental health support.

Shire chief executive Dale Stewart said the win came in “an important category”.

“We were all ecstatic to be recognised in a national award, particularly in such an important category as mental health and wellbeing, which is so important for our community,” he said.

“Examples of projects that were put forward included the sensory garden that we built next to the Bob Farr Memorial Library.

“Also, work that the community has done and the Shire has assisted with, regarding the Forget Me Not Cafe.

“We only revisited the entry into the Keep Australia Beautiful Awards 12 months ago after many years of absence.

“But now that we’ve had a small taste of success as the State winner and also one of the six categories in the national awards, it gives us great momentum to reach higher.”