Horsepower Highway named Community Action and Wellbeing winners at 2021 Tidy Towns awards

The Horsepower Highway has driven its way to the top of the Community Action and Wellbeing category of this year’s Tidy Towns Awards.

Through the installation of 22 quirky tractor displays along the Broomehill-Gnowangerup Road and Formby Road South, GNP 360’s Horsepower Highway was recognised at the Tidy Towns Sustainable Communities Awards at the weekend for the project’s contribution to community wellbeing.

The 75km trail of creative tractor installations, from Broomehill through Gnowangerup and south to the Stirling Range National Park, showcases the region’s history and culture in exhibits such as Mad Max, Snowy, and the Lucinda Tanks.

Fourteen businesses, 11 heirloom machinery donations, and 130 volunteers from around the Shire of Gnowangerup have been responsible for funding and developing the project over the past year.

The team has created an online map to help tourists navigate the displays.

Ten representatives from Gnowangerup attended the ceremony at Optus Stadium on November 26 and were ecstatic when their project was announced the winner.

“The Gnowangerup community started this project in order to bring life and vitality to the community, and we feel like we are winners already because we have achieved that,” GNP 360 secretary Cassandra Beeck said.

The win came on the same weekend as the launch of the highway’s 22nd tractor, Dyipni, a tractor display inspired by the work of 14 local Filipino welders and fitters whose families live and work in the town of Gnowangerup.

The display is one of six new additions set to come to the highway over the next six months and will contribute to the Horsepower Highway’s latest nomination in the Australian Street Art Awards.

While Gnowangerup won this year’s community action and wellbeing award, Boddington won the WA gong for the tidiest town of the year.

WA Environment Minster Amber-Jade Sanderson said all the winners at this year’s awards had done their communities proud.

“For more than 50 years, these awards have showcased the important work taking place in our State’s regional and remote communities, and encouraged friendly competition between towns,” she said.