Council picks up coveted gong at Environmental Health Awards

Environmental Health Unit recognised for work across multiple projects

Council’s Environmental Health Unit has won the NSW Team of the Year at the 2022 Environmental Health Australia (EHA) Excellence Awards for their work canvassing everything from post flood clean-up and mould reduction to tackling the reduction of mosquito-borne diseases and COVID-19.

Environmental Health Australia Excellence Awards celebrate excellence in the environmental health profession. The 2022 NSW Environmental Health Team of the Year is awarded to a team that is identified as having excelled in their daily roles and significant projects in all facets of environment health.

The coveted award was announced at the annual EHA Conference in Newcastle last week (16 August).

The team’s award-winning submission highlighted the complex and often difficult nature of the environmental health setting over the past few years.

Recognised was the team’s immediate response during the February-March 2022 floods that devastated parts of the region. This provided residents and affected businesses with immediate public health advice around post-flood clean-up, safe removal of asbestos and mould prevention.

During the aftermath of the flood, they also inspected more than 300 sites at 4 flood-affected caravan parks in the Tweed to assess damage, assist with cleaning and help remove unwanted items, while also informing the community of available government assistance.

The project team’s delivery of public health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic saw the unit rapidly adapt to issues related to the spread of the illness such as remote work and border closures.

Other key areas of success were Council’s design of the behaviour change initiative Tackling Mosquitoes Together which aims to decrease the risk of mosquito-borne diseases – and their ground-breaking use of cutting edge DNA technology to identify mosquito-carrying diseases such as Ross River Fever and Dengue Fever.

Council’s quick-acting response following a request from NSW Health to monitor for the detection of Japanese Encephalitis virus in the Tweed, was also praised.

Council’s Manager, Building & Environmental Health Denise Galle was thrilled the team had been recognised for their hard work and exemplary leadership over a diverse range of projects.

“It has certainly been a difficult few years for the whole community, including our team,” Ms Galle said.

“I am very proud our team has been able to push through these difficult times and still produce positive outcomes for the whole community.

“This is not just an award for us but for all of Council. It shows what working together to achieve positive community outcomes really looks like.”

Environmental Health Australia (EHA) is the premier environmental health professional organisation in Australia which advocates environmental health issues and represents those that work within the environmental health industry across Australia.

For more information on Council’s work on mosquitos, please go to tweed.nsw.gov.au/mosquitoes-midges and tacklingmosquitoestogether.com.au.

For more information on Council’s Flood clean-up efforts, please go to
tweed.nsw.gov.au/recovery-dashboard.

For more information about EHA and the Excellence Awards, please go to
ehansw.org.au/about-us/awards.