The awards may look a little different from the original anti-litter tourism effort of the 1960s, but they’re still a way for far-flung towns to showcase their civic pride Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast It’s a quintessential Australian image. Driving down a freeway or gravel track on a road trip and coming across a well-weathered sign at the entrance to a community reading “tidy town winner” in proud lettering. It may come as a soothing reassurance that the town you’re about to enter will be relatively litter free, or stir up a sense of deja vu of a similar sign on another road you’ve seen some years ago, perhaps on the other side of the country.