[Music plays and text appears: National Awards for Local Government. Backpackers and Seasonal Workers Road Safety Campaign, Southern Downs Regional Council, QLD, Excellence in Road Safety. Category Winner]
[Image changes to show Tracy Dobie, Backpackers and Seasonal Workers, Road Safety Campaign, Southern Downs Regional Council, QLD]
The Southern Downs is West of Brisbane, and just on the New South Wales border with Queensland.
[Different photographs of the region flash by on screen, including shots of the town centre and people picking fruit and vegetables]
Stanthorpe is well known for its fruit and vegetable production, and we have seasonal workers come, generally from overseas now, to harvest the fruit and vegetables.
[Image has changed back to Tracy seated and talking to the camera]
From 2010 to 2015 there were a growing number of fatalities and road accidents, generally involving our international foreign backpackers and seasonal workers, and so council identified a multi-layered programme to try and improve the road safety, and not just for our backpackers, but for our own population as well.
[Image changes to show different shots of the roads and road safety signs]
This year we"ve had no fatalities, and our accidents have been reduced by about 15%.
[Image has changed back to Tracy seated and talking to the camera]
But it's not just the effect on our seasonal workers; it also has a big effect on our community, because often it's our own residents who are involved in these accidents.
[Image changes back to show the road and road safety signs]
For our road signage we kept it very simple.
[Image changes to show the camera panning over the written information regarding this issue which is in a Visiting Queensland pamphlet and then moves to show the information on the website, too]
But the written material we"ve put out is in four languages, and the information our website is available as well. We"ve also spent a lot of time with the employment agencies, and the staff at the accommodation houses, as well as restaurants, shops and the producers themselves who employ the foreign workers, to get information to the foreign workers by as many means as we can.
[Images of the different employers all standing by the implemented road safety signs flash by on screen]
[Image has changed back to Tracy seated and talking to the camera]
So we"d like to see this initiative throughout Australia, and particularly in the rural producing areas like ours that employ a lot of seasonal workers.
[Different photographs of the region flash by on screen and then moves back to Tracy seated and talking to the camera]
It's not just the winning of the award, it's the campaign itself that has raised the awareness within the region of not just what council is prepared to do, but has done for visitors and the local community. And it's great for council staff to know that their efforts are rewarded.
[Music plays and text appears: National Awards for Local Government. Backpackers and Seasonal Workers Road Safety Campaign, Southern Downs Regional Council, QLD, Excellence in Road Safety. Category Winner]