Hawkesbury City Council was a big winner at the 2025 NSW Local Government Excellence Awards, recognised for its now multi award-winning Hawkesbury River Safety Campaign.
The awards are hosted by Local Government Professionals Australia NSW and celebrate outstanding achievements within NSW local government. Council was also a finalist in the Community Partnerships, Customer Service and First Nations Community Partnership categories.
The Council took out the Local Government Excellence Awards – Special Projects, population 50,000 to 150,000 for its Hawkesbury River Safety Campaign.
The win follows the 2024 RH Dougherty Events and Communications Award – Excellence in Communication (population 30,000-100,000) received in August 2024.
The Hawkesbury River Safety Campaign was developed in response to drownings in the Hawkesbury River at Macquarie Park in Windsor.
The campaign centred around new river safety signs developed in consultation with Royal Life Saving NSW using best practise design, and internationally recognised safety symbols. Versions of the signs have also been created in the five most common non-English languages for visitors to the Hawkesbury – Hindi, Punjabi, Simplified Chinese, Arabic and Filipino – which can be accessed by a QR Code via a smartphone.
The signs were supported by a multi-lingual awareness campaign on social media urging visitors to consider other fun activities around the river instead of swimming in local waterways.
Visitors to Council’s tent at the Hawkesbury Show in 2024 were invited to take a river safety pledge and place their pledge on a special artwork created for the event by Hawkesbury Remakery. Pledges were recorded and used to create a multilingual video for social media for use in ongoing campaigns.
In other wins announced at last week’s gala award dinner, Central Coast Council was recognised for its outstanding achievement across multiple areas of service and innovation, winning the award for Community Partnerships population over 150,000 – for the ‘Every Day I like to play’ children’s book.
‘Every Day I like to play’ is a children’s picture book, developed by the Council, to promote respectful relationships and break down gendered stereotypes of traditional roles within the home.
Mayor, Lawrie McKinna said the award reflects Council’s ongoing commitment to delivering meaningful, community-focused outcomes.
“The creation of this children’s book has been a wonderful initiative, as it explores positive and respectful relationships, encourages acceptance and celebrates kindness.”
“Being recognised with the NSW Local Government Excellence’s Community Partnerships Award for Council’s ‘Every Day I like to play’ children’s book is an honour and a testament to the passion and professionalism of our staff,” Mayor McKinna said.
Sydney’s Burwood Council took out the NSW Local Government Excellence Awards under the Supporting Local Enterprise category for its Burwood Culture Streets Project.
The Burwood Culture Streets program involved a series of street-based activations that brought arts, culture, and community to life by attracting over 80,000 visitors, with 99% rating the experience as excellent or good; supporting 258 artists and 39 creative specialists; generating more than $1 million in local economic impact; reaching 1.1 million people on social media; increasing foot traffic by eight times and visit duration by 29 times; and helping 58% of local businesses gain more customers.
Penrith City Council’s One Community, Many Abilities campaign was awarded for outstanding efforts in creating inclusive and engaged communities through strategic community development.
“Thanks to the five Penrith City residents who shared their stories as part of this campaign to inspire the broader community to help make Penrith more accessible,” the Council said in a statement following the win.
“We are so proud to take out such an award at the 2025 NSW Local Government Excellence Awards.”
The Kamilaroi Highway Group won the Borderless Communities Award at the 2025 NSW Local Government Excellence Awards.
The award was accepted by Gunnedah Shire Council Manager Governance and Legal Alice McLean and Council’s Acting Tourism and Cultural Service Manager, Catherine Davis (both pictured).
“The Kamilaroi Highway group includes seven councils working together to promote the wonderful journey this highway takes you on – and the many things to see along the way,” the Council said in a statement.
