Bundanoon - Australia's first bottled water free town

Posted: 02.10.09  |  Created by: Do Something

Do Something's Go Tap campaign has played a key role in helping Bundanoon to become Australia’s first bottled water free town.   

On Saturday September 26 Bundanoon retailers pulled the last of the commercially-bottled water off their shelves when the town gathered to officially launch the bottled water ban. The day was marked by festivities including the ceremonial 'turning on' of the filtered water stations installed to provide free tap water to residents and visitors.

The town’s shops have replaced single-use bottled water with refillable bottles. For a small fee, consumers are able to refill their bottles with chilled filter water in shops.  

Alternatively, people can fill their bottles with free filtered water from public water fountains in the main street. These hi-tech filtered water fountains have been donated to Bundanoon by the filter company Culligan Water and Street Furniture Australia.

"Whilst our politicians grapple with the enormity of dealing with climate change what Bundanoon shows is that at the very local level we can sometimes do things that can surprise ourselves, in terms of our ability to bring about real and measurable change that has a real benefit for the environment," said Jon Dee, founder of Do Something.

A town meeting held in Bundanoon on Wednesday July 8th was addressed by Jon, who set out the environmental and financial impacts of bottled water. Of the 356 people who attended, 355 of them voted in favour of a total ban on bottled water. Only one person voted against the ban.

Prior to the meeting, Jon had been helping Huw Kingston and the Bundanoon business community in their move away from bottled water. Subject to the vote, all retailers in the 2,500 population town had already agreed to stop the sale of single-use bottled water.

“The Bundanoon community has voted unequivocally to ban bottled water”, said Jon, who helped to drive the ban on plastic bags in the Tasmanian town of Coles Bay. “We are very much hoping that this move will get Australians to rethink the half billion dollars a year that they spend on bottled water. Just as Coles Bay led the way on plastic bags, we believe that Bundanoon will lead the way on bottled water”.  

“Bundanoon could not have made its position clearer on bottled water,” said Huw Kingston, the owner of the town’s combined café and bike shop who has been a driving force behind the ban.

"We can go forward with the strength of the community and Bundanoon's businesses right behind us”, he said. "It was the biggest ever turnout in the Bundanoon community – this is a common sense approach for which there is overwhelming support.”

Bundanoon’s push has already led to reductions in bottled water use. Huw and Jon joined in congratulating the NSW Premier Nathan Rees on his decision to follow the lead of Bundanoon by banning bottled water in all Government Departments.

On the media front, the ban unleashed a firestorm of publicity both in Australia and overseas. Between them, Jon and Huw undertook more than 150 media interviews with local and international media outlets. At one point, the BBC’s story about the Bundanoon ban was the number one most read story on the BBC global web site. At the time of posting, more than 800 web sites had covered the story on the Internet.