A small town in Western Australia has proven size doesn't matter after taking out top honours in the first Tidy Towns People's Choice Award.  With a population of just 321, Walpole located on the WA coast attracted more votes per capita than any town in the new national competition and the prize of a $10,000 grant towards a community project.

Over 5,000 votes have poured into the site since Australia's favourite GPS brand Navman launched the competition with Keep Australia Beautiful's Tidy Towns.   The competition complements the official Tidy Towns awards that have been running in Australia for over 40 years and asked people to say why others should visit the town.  Other towns in the top five of 'Australia's most loved' were Dartmoor, in Victoria; Hastings Point, NSW; Lockhart, NSW and Bincheno in Tasmania.

Walpole has also been successful in the official Tidy Towns competition, having taken out the state title in 2007.

When asked how a little town of 321 people managed to get a whopping 1,026 votes, Dave Tapley, councilor and chair of Tidy Towns Committee, Walpole said, "That's Walpole, mate. Something like this just pulled everyone together. Everyone in the town voted and we tapped into our network of friends and families in other areas."

Extremely town proud and no strangers to extraordinary feats of effort - town volunteers clean 104 kilometres of highway weekly - the town went the extra mile to win the competition.  Volunteers created a "how to vote" form and stood in rain and sunshine at popular local tourist sites asking people to vote, averaging about 30 votes a day.  An obstacle they had to overcome was that not everyone had computers or internet access, so the town turned to its computer expert, 86 year old Geordie Whitwell. Geordie set up a computer on site where people could register their votes.

"We really wanted to win to put our town on the map, so the community got organised and we gave it our all.  It was almost like a military operation - we were even monitoring the votes of other towns in the competition," said Michael Filby, community volunteer, winner of the individual award at the Australian Tidy Towns Awards.

Walpole will put the $10,000 prize money towards building a fish cleaning station as the town is surrounded by fishing grounds and is popular with recreational fishers. 

Wendy Hammond, marketing director, Navman, who was responsible for setting up the competition with Keep Australia Beautiful said, "We really wanted to give towns all over the country -both large and small - the chance to put themselves on the map, and to encourage people to get out on the road and discover more of our country and put valuable tourism dollars into the local economy.

 "Even though only one town could win, the Navman People's Choice award has demonstrated the amazing community spirit in our country. Thousands of Australians including councils, tourism bodies, Tidy Towns committees and everyday punters showed strong support for their most loved town by
submitting incredible images, fascinating facts and insider secrets about their favourite town. We were extremely pleased with how successful and well received the competition was," she said.

Scott Lyall, Executive Officer of Keep Australia Beautiful added, "We are thrilled with the results of the first Navman People's Choice promotion.  So many towns and individuals from around the country took part and helped remind us of why we should visit their special part of Australia.  It was good to see some familiar, and not so familiar, names take part. But there can only be one winner and we congratulate Walpole, WA."

Walpole, located 420 km South of Perth on the coast of Western Australia, only has a tiny population but was the clear winner out of the 200 towns nominated for the award. The town offers the impressive 'valley of the giants' tree top walk amongst massive tingle and karri trees as well as amazing rivers, beaches and incredible views of Mount Frankland. More importantly Walpole has a very passionate and dedicated local community. 

Now that the award is over Navman also want to remind Australians they can continue supporting regional Australia by getting in the car and visiting these wonderful towns.

Over 200 towns were nominated in this year's competition and images and descriptions can be found on the website.

The winner of the People's Choice Award was calculated based on per head of population. Unlike the official and iconic Tidy Towns Award which is chosen by judges who visit certain regions, the Navman People's Choice Award, allowed everyone to pick their favourite town.  Ten people who voted in the competition will also soon be receiving a brand new Navman GPS.