WARWICK has received a gong at this year's Keep Australia Beautiful Queensland Tidy Towns, making it two years in a row for the region.

On Monday evening it was announced Warwick had won the Water Conservation award for its waste-water treatment and recycling and was runner-up for tidiest town.

The Rose City was also awarded a highly commended for the "outstanding recovery in re-establishing all its environmental programs and its volunteer efforts in presenting its township reopen for business and visitors after the January floods".

These awards follow Stanthorpe's win last year, which saw it crowned overall tidiest town for the state.

Keep Australia Beautiful Queensland chief executive Rick Burnett said Warwick had submitted "a tremendous entry". "We've never given a highly commended like that before," he said.

"Warwick was outstanding and the judges had quite a bit of debate about the difference between the Warwick application and the winner, Caloundra, and a lot of emphasis was on the flood recovery in Warwick.

"I think it just stood out and Warwick showed a tremendous resilience in regards to what happened at the beginning of the year."

Southern Downs Regional Council parks co-ordinator John Newley said the wins reflected the pride of council staff. "We want to present public open space to everyone as clean as possible, to the visitors and locals," he said.

"Everything from the parks, public toilets and entrances to the town."

Water recycling plant operator Derrick Zwoerner said there was one thing he thought the Warwick water system had that set it apart from other towns.

"We don't feed back into the river system," he said.

"All the water gets recycled into the sporting grounds.

"We're more environmentally friendly."

Some of the tidy town winners of 2011

• Keep Australia Beautiful Queensland's Tidiest Town: Caloundra
• Environmental Protection Award: Emerald.
• Australia Post Bush Spirit Award: Lockyer Valley.
• The Friendliest Town Award: Maryborough.