Northern Grampians Shire Council is celebrating yet another national award, receiving a National Award for Local Government for the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL) project.
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The project took out the 'Contributing to Regional Growth' category of the 2015 awards which will be presented during the ALGA National General Assembly to be held in Canberra in June.
Council also received a highly commended in the 'Arts Animates - excellence in community engagement and participation' category for the St Arnaud Street Museum.
Mayor Cr Murray Emerson said the recognition of these projects at national level spoke volumes about the hard work both council and council staff do to make sure the Northern Grampians is at the forefront of innovation.
"We are absolutely thrilled to see two of our projects get a mention in the National Awards for Local Government," he said.
"For a small rural council to be recognised on the national stage is magnificent. It goes to show that despite our constraints, we are looking at doing things differently and making it work quite well.
"We do have smaller budgets and a number of other issues that our city counterparts don't face. Awards like these prove that we are smart about what we do and where our effort goes."
The SUPL project is a partnership between council, Melbourne University, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Particle Physics at the Terascale (CoEPP), the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Crocodile Gold and other Australian and international organisations.
It will allow for the construction of the first underground dark matter detection laboratory in the Southern Hemisphere, forming part of a network of major research laboratories around the globe.
The St Arnaud Street Museum is a major component of the St Arnaud Civic Precinct Plan.
Renowned artists are invited to reside in the township each season and explore different themes which will draw inspiration from the history and contemporary life of St Arnaud.
Completed works are then displayed in shop fronts and a large brick wall along St Arnaud's main street.