Winner of the Newcomer Award - Barossa Council

Location: Regional SA
Population: 24,256
Years involved in Garage Sale Trail: 1

Barossa Council were new to Garage Sale Trail in 2018 and got off to a flying start. The engagement from the community was immediate thanks to Councils dedicated efforts promoting the program from the get-go. 

We spoke to Taryn Davis, Communications and Engagement Officer at Barossa Council to find about how they achieved such success in year one. Learn more

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Who is delivering the program at Council?
Mainly our Communication and Engagement Officers, Heidi Helbig and Taryn Wills.

Why do you think the Barossa community have embraced Garage Sale Trail?
I think the response has been positive largely because it’s something new for our region. Garage sales are a dime a dozen in the Barossa, so people see this a great way to be involved on a bigger scale. Perhaps it’s given people the prompt they need to have a spring clean too!
As part of a new waste contract and initiative, we’ve been on a mission working with our community for months now to encourage them to Waste Less, Recycle More. Perhaps the message is getting through to people that it’s important to reduce our waste to landfill and instead start embracing the reuse and recycle movement.

How much time have you invested in delivering the program at Council?
As a result of the incredible collateral at our disposal [on the Council Dashboard] our weekly investment is minimal (YAY)! Perhaps an hour a week max! It’s fantastic.
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What areas of promotion have you focused on?
Our promotion has largely been focused on utilising our day to day marketing channels.
This includes Council’s Facebook page, our website, monthly newsletters in local newspapers, our quarterly newsletter that goes out to ratepayers, media releases to local media outlets, internal e-newsletters to staff as well as poster displays in our libraries and branch offices.
We’ve also reached out to local community groups, sporting groups and schools trying to encourage them to get involved too.

Barossa Council Media Examples