The Hawkesbury River Foreshore Program had a very international flavour this week, with university students from Singapore joining Macmasters Beach Suf Club for a clean-up at Bar & Fisherman’s Point.
The task for the day was to remove unwanted litter from the river foreshores and to assist the “Floating Landcare” group at Bar Point jetty.
For the students from Singapore, this was an adventure with a purpose, and after overcoming the wetsuits and PPE gear they thrived on the IRB trip, litter collection and the tough and muddy tasks that was presented during the morning.
Bar Point was first visited, with contact made with the Landcare group, at the jetty. This area still has thick timber debris from the April floods and many bottles and larger Items collected. These included a TV fridge, dryer, processed timber and tyres. Bar Island was cleaned, revealing twelve oyster trays plastic bottles. The inside cove at Fishermans Point, which has received two previous cleans, again has bulk flood debris, with larger items appearing including shade cloth material, oyster trays, tyres and plenty of small items. Work was tough and muddy in this area. The Bar Point residential foreshore was cleaned of product on the foreshore, with eight more tyres, including two large tractor tyres collected. Positive feedback from the locals who were present.
BBQ lunch and a swim at Bar Point with the Landcare volunteers was welcomed by the crew. I’m sure the Landcare crew were amazed by the energy and the efforts of the young clean-up crew. The coordinator spoke to the Landcare workers on the progress of the Foreshore Program. All litter was transferred in a grossly overladen barge for the slow trip back to the Mooney and offloading at Rob Moxham’s oyster depot, using a crane into a pre-arranged Council skip bin. The bulk items stacked at Long Island were collected using Rob Moxham’s barge and all items including the tyres were offloaded.
Total tyres collected =18, including the Long Island tyres, are being cleaned and disposed to tyre recyclers, by Rob Moxham. My thanks to Gosford Council’s barge operator Jacko, for his efforts in managing the barge, and his patience with a group of high energy, often crazy, “Macs” Duke members.
Graham Johnston
Jonomacs@bigpond.com
0411184642
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