Local Landcare Action Earns National Recognition
The 2026 Keep Australia Beautiful National Tidy Towns Awards have recognised the Huon Valley’s outstanding work to protect waterways, restore biodiversity and strengthen local communities.
Huon Valley Council took home the National Tidy Towns Award, while two community-led environmental projects also received national recognition.
The Huon Valley Waterwatch and Waterbug Blitz project, delivered by Landcare Tasmania and the Upper Huon Wildlife Monitoring Group, was highly commended in the Water Conservation and Protection category.
And there was more good news for the region, with the Huon Valley Native Plant Nursery taking home the Biodiversity Conservation Award.
Keeping a close eye on Huon waterways
Waterwatch is a community-based waterway monitoring program that brings together volunteers, scientists and land managers to build a better understanding of the health of local waterways.
While Tasmania does not have a central Waterwatch database like some other states, community groups across the island are increasingly getting involved in monitoring their local waterways – collecting valuable information and building a picture of how rivers and streams are changing over time.
The current Huon Waterwatch program was established in mid-2022 by water quality expert and Upper Huon Wildlife Monitoring Group convenor Simon Roberts, alongside freshwater ecologist and waterbug expert John Gooderham.
The program has been supported and funded by Huon Valley Council, Landcare Tasmania and the Tasmanian Government, helping fill gaps in local waterway monitoring while responding to growing concerns about the impacts of climate change on freshwater ecosystems.
And at the heart of the project are the people who make it possible.
Simon and John have contributed enormous amounts of time, knowledge and passion to the program, helping local volunteers learn how to investigate the health of their waterways and understand what the results are telling us.
Their work is a great example of what community-led action can achieve: local people, with local knowledge and the right support, generating information that can help protect the places they care about.
Over the past four years, Simon and John have worked alongside dedicated volunteers and local Landcare groups to undertake fine-scale monitoring of waterway health across the Huon Valley. The program has operated as a state pilot and case study for future Waterwatch programs, while also providing opportunities for the community to learn more through training sessions and workshops that have been well attended and enthusiastically received.
In 2026, the team released a new report, Water quality and potential climate change impacts on ecological health of waterways in the Huon Valley.
The comprehensive report brings together water quality data, land-use mapping and ecological health assessments based on freshwater macroinvertebrate communities – the different types of waterbugs found in waterways – to provide a detailed assessment of Huon Valley waterways sampled in autumn and spring 2025. Where historic records are available, the report also compares current findings with past data, helping build a picture of how waterway health is changing over time.
Want to get involved?
You can learn more about the Huon Waterwatch program and find out how to get involved in your own Waterwatch activities on the Huon Waterwatch Program webpage.
