BUNDANOON residents literally sang the praises of Australia’s first bottled-water free town at the launch of the Bundy-On-Tap campaign on Saturday.
Bundy Fantastic, resident Ken Ferrier’s tribute to his hometown was sung by the Serendipity choir and Bundanoon Public School students as the village officially turned on its new filtered water stations and drinking fountains.
Appropriately for a village which has made headlines worldwide for its stance against commercially bottled water, Bundy Fantastic is set to the music from the 1980 movie Fame.
Residents and visitors are snapping up re-usable Bundy-On-Tap bottles that can be filled from the water stations in the main street and school, or with chilled, filtered water available free from businesses.
More than 1000 of the colourful Bundy-On-Tap bottles have been sold in the first few days of the campaign.
Newsagent Peter Stewart said there had been a “mad rush” for the Bundy-On-Tap bottles on Saturday.
The Bundanoon Newsagency has sold about 150 of the basic $3.50 bottles, 101 of them on Saturday, and 42 of the more expensive Camelbak bottles.
Bundanoon residents queued to fill up their new bottles on Saturday afternoon - but Bundanoon Public School principal Robyn Versluis admitted that some her students had not been able to wait so long to try the new school’s new fountain.
“They look good, they work and the children who have had a sneaky little drink assure me that the water tastes wonderful,” she said.
As well as the nine main street businesses that have cleared bottled water from their shelves, Brigadoon is Bundanoon has signed on to the cause and is working with Bundy-On-Tap to find ways to encourage the 15,000 visitors to the annual Highland gathering to go bottled-water free.
The Bundanoon RFS will also use the refillable bottles.
Bundy-On-Tap spokesman Bob Thomas said more than 50 towns and villages had written or emailed asking how Bundanoon had succeeded in its bottled water boycott.
Mr Thomas said the catalyst for the campaign was Norlex Holdings’ plan to bottle and sell Bundanoon springwater.
Although Bundy-On-Tap was not directed at Norlex, residents’ long fight against the company had made them aware of the environmental impact of the bottled water industry, he said.
The second factor was Bundanoon business owner Huw Kingston, who recognised the incongruity of Bundanoon objecting to pumping water for bottling and at the same time drinking bottled water sold in local shops, and encouraged other business owners to stop selling bottled water.
Mr Thomas said the other factor allowing Bundanoon to go bottle-free was the support of sponsors, including Street Furniture Australia and Culligan Water, who have supplied the drinking stations and fountains.
“They’ve enabled us to offer substitutes for bottled water so that no one can accuse us of taking away choice,” Mr Thomas said.
“The last factor has to do with the ‘can do’ attitude of the community.
“There are many towns where people recognise problems and talk about problems but in this town we set about fixing problems.”
Do Something founder Jon Dee said Bundanoon had shown that it did not have to rely on bottled water.
“This will save the environment, but it will also save people’s wallets,” he said.
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