Our wonderful beaches, dunes and diverse coastal landscape are fantastic features in Tomaree National Park. Over the Clean Up Australia weekend, 2 & 3 March 2024, community and Friends of Tomaree NP came together to ensure several beaches were spic and span.
We coordinated two successful Clean Ups over the weekend. Following the Box and Wreck Beach Clean Up on Saturday, taking out a truckload of rubbish, we had our second Clean Up on Sunday supporting the Fishermans Bay community with 33 people including children attending.
Thank you to everyone who helped make Tomaree a better place, and take part in the first of many activities celebrating 40 Years of Tomaree National Park.
At Box and Wreck beaches we hauled a truck load!
13 generous people braved the hot and humid conditions to collect a whole truck load of rubbish. Yes, everything you see in the truck we collected!
The haul was interesting:
- 3 full bags of recyclable included about 80 cans, 40 glass bottles, 75 plastic bottles and cardboard
- 4 bags of waste included over 300 pieces of plastic fragments, bags, wrappers and so forth, and about 40 bits of clothing, from socks and shoes to towels, shirts and undies.
- plus loads that didn’t fit in bags; a sink, discarded sun shelter frames, planks of wood with exposed nails, a 2-way radio, a couple of chairs, part of a slide, a couple of tarps, mower base and an old metal bed pan were all dumped in the national park!
And afterwards we enjoyed a friendly chat over a cuppa and a fantastic home-bakes cake and other nibbles!
At Fishermans Bay we saw massive community support
Over 33 people including several children joined together to clean up a huge area — from Little Kingsley Beach to Fishermans Bay and over the headland to Iris Moore Reserve in Anna Bay.
The Fishermans Bay rock platforms and beach were scoured for litter and we collected loads of plastic marine debris along with fishing lines and hooks.
The recent bush fire on the 29th January bared the headland, exposing scattered rubbish hidden for years throughout the bush. Cans and bottles were easily collected from the walking tracks. We pulled loads of historical rubbish from the bush including an old kitchen woodstove.
And 2025 Clean UP? — how wonderful if we have no rubbish at these beaches and dunes
You may like to read more about the Friends of Tomaree National Park — and we’d love you to join us for a workbee session or two, you may even enjoy it!
Josephine O’Brien
Team Leader Fishermans Bay, Friends of Tomaree National Park
Sue Olsson
Coordinator, Friends of Tomaree National Park
