Remote Australian town initiates health and road safety campaign

A small yet powerful team in the far west New South Wales town of Bourke has launched a campaign to raise awareness of key health and road safety issues in the area.

The campaign, entitled ‘Respect our Town’ is the result of a collaboration with a local artist and high school students who produced locally-designed promotional materials targeting residents and tourists to avoid drink-driving, under-age drinking and remind drivers of the zero alcohol limits.

Posters and postcards hone in on messages of respect for families and community members. Each piece also reinforces the recently enforced alcohol restriction levels for those within the 50km radius of licensed venues, and operate as an ongoing reminder of the restrictions for all community members.

The Bourke Alcohol and Drug Working Group has launched this initiative, following the findings of an interim evaluation on the Bourke Alcohol Action Plan, conducted by The George Institute and funded by the Transport for NSW, Centre for Road Safety.

The Mayor of Bourke, Andrew Lewis states “The alcohol restrictions introduced in 2009 have had positive results as outlined in this interim evaluation. I believe that the Respect Our Town campaign highlights how far we have come since this legislation was introduced.”