Horsham has 11 finalists across nine categories, Dimboola has seven finalists across six categories and St Arnaud has one finalist.

The awards cover many different categories, from education to heritage and culture, and look to recognise the work of grassroots organisations playing a role in building a sense of community.

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The awards will be hosted online for the second year running on Saturday, October 16.

The ceremony was initially going to be held in Hastings, the winner of the Tidy Town of the Year 2020 award, but had to be cancelled and moved online due to COVID-19 restrictions.

See the Wimmera's finalists here:

Dimboola Bowling Club, Dimboola. The Dimboola Bowling Club has been trying to replace the grass B Green with a synthetic surface to reduce the maintenance of the facility for many years.

Through government grants, a contribution from Hindmarsh Shire Council and $110,000 from the club, the B Green has been transformed into an all-accessible green for disabled players.

The green will reduce water usage and maintenance by the club, making less work for the ageing membership. The C Green will be transformed into a native garden to enhance the environment of the club.

Wimmera Cancer Centre, Horsham. The Wimmera Cancer Centre was founded by the Wimmera Southern Mallee community with state and federal government funding. Around $1.6 million has been donated to the project.

The project was opened in January 2019 after three years of fundraising.

Horsham Tidy Towns Committee former chair Don Johns OAM was the key campaigner, and is responsible for coining the slogan 'Give where you live'.

His passion and vision was a building to deliver cancer, dialysis and hospice care services.

The Community fundraising campaign 'Rachael's Wish' was named after Rachael Littore, who was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2013. Rachael wrote to the Federal Member for Mallee for support for a new centre. Then Prime Minister, Tony Abbott visited Wimmera Health Care Group (WHCG) and committed $1million to the project.

Public art and Horsham Heritage Trail, Horsham. The Public Art and Heritage Trail activation projects involved the decoration of a Powercor Box near the NAB Bank in Pynsent Street and completion of artwork on walls in Jos' Lane in the CBD. The Powercor Box was painted by two young residents.

A further project - 'BIN Spiration' - was developed during the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020, with paint and materials being provided to locals to design and colour their household rubbish and recycling bins, with the aim to provide life and colour to the streets of Horsham on rubbish collection days.

All these projects are devised and driven through the Public Art Advisory Committee of Horsham Rural City Council, with a further proposal to decorate 16 NBN boxes around the area.

Virtual Horsham Agricultural Show, Horsham. Victoria's first Virtual Agricultural Show was created to keep Horsham's Community connected through lockdown.

The Virtual Agricultural Show was launched on 1 May 2020 on Facebook with competitions running until Show Day on 27 September 2020.

Horsham Tidy Towns Committee, Horsham. Horsham started its own Facebook page as a tool to provide education and bring awareness to the Tidy Towns ideals of a sustainable life.

Through the page, the committee can share environmental messages and invite followers to join in programs such as Boomerang Bags working bees, Clean Up Australia Day and the Tidy Towns Awards. Also, information on how to recycle, minimise waste and other programs is shared with the broader community.

Horsham Regional Livestock Exchange Roofing. In 2020, Horsham Rural City Council implemented a project to roof the Horsham Regional Livestock Exchange saleyards.

This project provided significant energy and environmental benefits including solar energy panels, water conservation, animal welfare and environmental safety.

Dimboola Visitor Node, Dimboola. The landscape transformation at the new Dimboola Library has been developed by the Hindmarsh Shire Council as the Dimboola Visitor Node and is part of the Wimmera Discovery Trail.

What was once an asphalt carpark, the Node has been transformed into a community space that will act as a refuge during hot summer months. This has provided a green link between the Dimboola business district and the Wimmera River environs.

Snape reserve, Dimboola. Snape Reserve was a farm for over 100 years. A committee of volunteers has managed the property since 2003, with their biggest challenge being managing weeds.

Every week, work on eradication is carried out with over 1040 hours of spot spraying the thick areas and hoeing the rest, leading to good control of these problem plants.

A project of reinstating stringybark trees was undertaken with Greening Australia purchasing and planting 12,000 seedlings. The volunteers constructed a kangaroo proof fence to protect the trees prior to planting.

The Committee of Management purchased and planted another 300 Willow Wattle trees.

The Wimmera River Improvement Centre, Horsham. The Wimmera River Improvement Committee has completed the sealing of the Langland's Track, a 2.5km loop from Horsham's Anzac Centenary Bridge to the Weir.

The project has meant that people with wheelchairs, mobility scooters and families with prams have been able to enjoy this beautiful part of the river for the first time.

The track has already been well used, particularly through the lockdowns of 2020 when outdoor recreation took on a new importance.

The project has had a major environmental impact and resulted in the re-introduction of water to an ancient billabong that had been blocked off from the river for more than 70 years.

The Committee has also acted to preserve the unique vegetation including Aboriginal scar trees and is engaging in ongoing works to re-vegetate the area.

Dimboola VRI, Dimboola. The Dimboola VRI is a remarkable story of saving the Dimboola VRI Hall after it was set for demolition.

A group of railway workers resurrected the Dimboola VRI and following negotiations driven by the VRI head office, the hall was returned to the Branch.

Since then, the members cleaned up the hall, which is now being used for institute functions, and is hired out for community use.

The funds for restoration were raised through golf days, fishing competitions, family days and in-kind support from the local hardware store.

Horsham Botanic Gardens, Horsham. Horsham Botanic Gardens, established in 1873, feature the ongoing maintenance and protection of a plantation of English Elm Trees planted as part of the 1883/1890 masterplan by William Guilfoyle.

The current Gardens staff have undertaken a proactive program on the Historic Elm trees, to reduce the canopy, remove dead wood and to establish a preservation watering application program.

As a result of the ongoing care by eight successive curators and Horsham Council staff, eight of the eleven original Guilfoyle plantings are still a feature of the Gardens.

The Gardens are now a regular venue for weddings, school excursions, the annual Horsham Garden Show and always offering botanical information/examples for study/research.

Robyn Lauricella, Dimboola. Dimboola has a strong Indigenous history, with many Traditional Owners living along the Wimmera River.

Over time, the lost language commonly spoken in the Wimmera for tens of thousands of years, once more has the chance to be found and revitalised.

Wotjobaluk woman, Robyn Lauricella has opened a Language and Cultural Learning Centre in Dimboola and plans to recover her native tongue, the Wergaia language.

Wotjobaluk Traditional Owners and First Nation organisations have been restoring the Wergaia language over the past two decades.

Barengi Gadjin Land Council, Wail. The Dalki Garringa, meaning 'Good Growing' in the Wotjobaluk language was originally established in 1946 as part of the Wail State Forest. Today, the clear focus of the nursery is to grow the plants that are native to Wotjobaluk Country, with the view to providing plants for revegetation projects, redevelopment of the Wail Arboretum as a botanic park, a retail and online nursery, café and a new native foods business.

The aim is to develop a long-term employment and business future for Traditional Owners.

Clean up Australia Day 2021, Horsham. Twenty-six volunteers came together to participate in a 'Clean Up Event' as part of the 'Clean Up Australia Day' National initiative, organised by the Horsham Tidy Town Committee.

Volunteer helpers included representation from Horsham Rotary Club, Haven Market Committee, CFA Headquarters Brigade, Wimmera River Improvement Committee together with Community Members and Tidy Towns Committee Members.

Eight sites and highway entrances to Horsham were visited, collecting 8m3 of rubbish, litter and recyclables.

Bunnings Horsham was generous enough to contribute buckets, gloves and hats for volunteers. Rural Roads Victoria also provided signage, hi-visibility jackets and collection bags.

Recycling the Wimmera, Dimboola. The Dimboola Lions operate the Recycle Centre where they manage initiatives to reduce waste and litter in the community.

The major function of the centre is to bale cardboard that is bought in from around the Wimmera, which is then sold on to be recycled.

This initiative is supported by the Hindmarsh Shire Council.

Another major project is the monthly collection of newspapers where volunteers collect papers from the curb and store them at the centre for recycling. The program asks the community to save their papers for collection and place them on the curb the first Saturday of each month.

The club's interest in recycling goes further, with the recycling of car batteries, scrap metal, small batteries, plastic bottle tops, and those annoying plastic bread tags.

While the movement of freight around the world has almost halted due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the Dimboola Lions are stockpiling the recycled material until better times and better pricing.

Polyrok Soft Plastic Reuse - Coles Carpark Horsham. The Horsham Tidy Towns Committee were concerned about the untidy, poorly drained, poor landscaped and the general presentation of the Coles Carpark, which needed an upgrade.

The Committee wrote to the Manager of Coles Horsham and requested action to improve the carpark to 'Tidy Towns' standards expectations. Coles responded with a redesign and commenced a major rebuild that included using 'Polyrok' as a carpark base and in the footways in lieu of conventional concrete.

Polyrok is a construction material that uses recycled plastic aggregate made from soft plastic waste to replace usual mineral aggregate.

Coles has been an agent for the collection of soft plastics through a program run by REDGroup. It was the REDGroup in association with Replas who then provided the Polyrok for use in the carpark.

Some 900,000 pieces of plastic went into the Polyrok used in the car park works.

Kerry Clarke, Dimboola. Victorian was in lockdown and all social activities has ceased when Kerrie Clarke wanted to get the kids excited about something.

Considering COVID-19 Safe Rules, Kerrie came up with the idea of a ghost map for Halloween that the local children used to find participating houses.

Dozens of kids dressed in their scariest outfits and scoured the streets for treats. People placed the wrapped treats in bowls on their doorstep so there was no interaction by the homeowner with the children. Occupants of the houses could only see all the fantastic costumes only by looking out the window.

At a time when all events were cancelled, this event provided a safe activity for the children in the community of Dimboola during a very challenging year.

Horsham 150km feast, Horsham. The 150km Feast showcased local food producers and wineries and engaged the services of over 50 small businesses within 150km of Horsham for 150 guests who paid $150 a ticket.

Being the first large scale social event following lockdown, it was virtually sold out prior to tickets going on sale. As a result, the society added a second date a week later, which sold out in three days to over 300 people in the final tally.

The impact of the short circuit lockdown pushed the event to run back-to-back, forcing volunteers - including four chefs - to almost work around the clock over the preceding four days, to prepare two five course meals.

Volunteers included over 50 multi-cultural women, school students at risk and people of all abilities who were provided free training in hospitality. Guests came from Brisbane, Sydney, Macarthur, Ballarat and Horsham.

Almost $30,000 was raised to enable the 2021 Agricultural Show.

Bart Turgoose, Horsham. Bart is a 16-year-old Horsham College student and is a school-based trainee studying Certificate III in Business.

Bart is very involved in many community-based activities and is held in high regard within many associations in Horsham. In addition, Bart has founded his own business "Worm King", selling worms and "Barts Clay Target Adventures", which encourages young people to join in clay target shooting.

Bart has an interest in social media and photography. He reported the competition activities for the Horsham Show on their Facebook page over show week. He is employed as a casual at West Vic Business and also works as a retail assistant at Horsham Electronics.

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