BALONNE RECOGNISED FOR DISASTER AWARENESS AND TOURISM INITIATIVES

Published on 30 September 2026

Last week, Council received an award for disaster awareness and was also confirmed as a finalist for tourism marketing for their efforts to boost tourism numbers in the Shire.

Council received a Highly Commended Award at last week’s 2026 Queensland Resilient Australia Awards in Brisbane for achieving an outstanding contribution to strengthening disaster resilience across Queensland from the development of the ‘How the Catchment Works’ video series.

These awards recognise efforts in disaster recovery and resilience across the government and private sectors, are open to all sectors and this year received the largest number of nominations ever.

The ‘How the Catchment Works’ videos are a series of insightful videos that explain how flooding occurs in the region and how to best respond to it, as explained by caricatured versions of our local students, which reached over 23,000 social media accounts.

Council was also recognised this week as a Finalist in the upcoming 2026 Queensland Tourism Awards in the Richard Power Award for Tourism Marketing and Campaigns category for the 2025 I Got Hooked Scavenger Hunt.

The 2025 I Got Hooked Scavenger Hunt received a 156% increase in participants and a 153% increase in local Shire images shared to social media as compared to the 2023 campaign.

Mayor Samantha O’Toole said this award for disaster awareness and news of being a finalist for tourism marketing was well-deserved recognition for the efforts of our teams.

“Our videos on How the Catchment Works really are an outstanding explanation of how flooding occurs in our region and how to prepare and recover,” said Mayor O’Toole.

“The local students did such a great job of narrating these videos and it is no wonder they received such recognition and resounding support throughout the region, both online and locally.

“Our St George Region team has achieved some great results in boosting tourism numbers in the Shire with the I Got Hooked Scavenger Hunt.

“We all have our fingers crossed that our St George Region tourism team can bring home an award at the upcoming tourism awards, but to us they’ve already won, as the increased visitors to our region are providing a much-needed economic boost to the region.”

The How the Catchment Works campaign videos can be viewed at Council's Youtube Channel at www.youtube.com/@balonneshirecouncil/videos

ENDS