BALONNE SHIRE COUNCIL AWARDED FOR EXCELLENCE IN INNOVATION
Published on 23 May 2025
Balonne Shire Council has been awarded the Excellence in Innovation Award at this year’s Local Government Managers Australia Awards for Excellence for its groundbreaking animation ‘How the Catchment Works’, featuring students from around the Shire.
The Excellence in Innovation Awards category had a total of 14 nominations, with Balonne Shire Council’s nomination shining through to win the category.
The ‘How the Catchment Works’ video campaign involved the development of four innovative videos, where local children explained how flooding occurs and addressed how to deal with flooding, which was then converted into a full animation.
The How the Catchment Works campaign videos can be viewed below:
Balonne Shire Mayor Samantha O’Toole was thrilled to have this public awareness campaign acknowledged with an Award for Excellence.
“As a Council, our team is constantly coming up with innovative ways to deliver cost-effective outcomes for our residents and we are so delighted to have this idea and grant funded campaign acknowledged at the LGMA Awards for Excellence”, said Mayor O’Toole.
“These videos are so impressive and the local students from around the Shire did such a great job.
“I know the kids really loved seeing themselves as cartoon characters and the message they delivered was so effective.
“We really wanted to raise awareness amongst the younger generation around what to do in a flood and how to deal with the aftereffects and with students putting the message in their own words, these videos have clearly achieved that for us.
“I would also like to congratulate all of the team involved in producing this campaign.”
The ‘How the Catchment Works’ campaign was proudly supported by the Australian and Queensland Governments’ Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.