Eli Creek, a popular fishing spot saw plenty of community spirit recently when volunteers from the Fraser Coast 4WD club, OceanWatch Australia and Fraser Coast Regional Council filled 4 skip bins in the space of a few hours, with industrial and household rubbish collected from the creek. Local business Re-use & Recycle assisted in the clean-up by supplying skip bins for free.
Weighing in at 3.82 tonnes, the rubbish included beer bottles, plastic bags, clothing, fishing line, rope, wire and an assortment of household rubbish. There were a number of larger items such as car tyres and old pieces of furniture, such as bed bases, armchairs, rusted tanks, trailers and even a dumped vehicle.
OceanWatch Project Manager Michelle Haase says, “The amount of dumping and littering that is still occurring in our local waterways isn’t good. These clean-up sites are nurseries for prawns and commercially desirable fish species; they can’t function properly if they’re degraded by rubbish.”
The clean-up at Eli Creek is just one of a series of marine clean-ups taking place throughout the Burnett-Mary region this year. Commercial fishers from Bundaberg undertook a clean-up in the Burnett River in June, and Fraser Coast 4WD Club cleaned-up Beaver Rocks Boat ramp on the Mary River last month. The next clean-up planned is for Fraser Island.
“We are pleased to support OceanWatch in its efforts to remove rubbish from important fish habitat areas. Our club is passionate about 4WD’ing and outdoor recreation, but it’s no fun if it’s strewn with rubbish as some of our favourite 4WD places are. It’s a poor example to our kids about how some people in the community treat our environment” said Robert Selby, President of the Fraser Coast 4WD Club.
Locals interested in becoming involved in future clean ups should register their interest in lending a hand by contacting Project Manager Michelle Haase on 0401 890 069.
The clean-up was an initiative of the Fraser Coast 4WD Club and OceanWatch Australia, through funding from the Australia Government’s Caring for our Country program.
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