The Thamarrurr Rangers are based in Wadeye, a remote community west of Darwin in the Northern Territory. Since 2014 they have set up 11 marine debris monitoring sites and reported their collections to the Australian Marine Debris Initiative Database as part of their on-ground work.
In May, Heidi from Tangaroa Blue visited Wadeye to help report the data collected by the Thamarrurr Rangers to the broader community, and to help use this data to create some local Source Reduction Plans that would prevent some of this marine debris from occuring in the first place.
A community meeting was held with Elders, Rangers, representatives from the Women’s Centre, Council and the School attending and several projects created including the use of old fuel drums as garbage bins at outstation camping sites and the barge landing, continuation of marine debris monitoring sites and a community art competition using litter/marine debris as the material and inspiration for the art pieces. The art competition is planned to be run during the annual Wadeye Festival and we can’t wait to see the pieces created!
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