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.

The impacts of marine debris on the Australian marine environment are well documented, with over 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine animals being killed every year by floating plastics, and over 18,000 pieces of plastic being found in every square kilometre of ocean our marine environment resembles a rubbish tip!

Local volunteer Jennifer Parkhurst has joined forces with Tangaroa Blue Ocean Care Society and the Rainbow Beach Primary School to address marine debris on Fraser Island and Rainbow Beach with funding assistance through a 2009 Queensland Government Natural Resources Awareness Grant. The grant focused on marine debris on and around two Queensland Heritage Listed Islands: Low Isles off the coast of Port Douglas in Far North Queensland and Fraser Island.

By Jennifer Parkhurst

While on Fraser Island I divide my time between observing/photographing the dingoes, and picking rubbish up from the beaches. Both pursuits are my passions.

I have lived at Rainbow Beach for nearly 7 years and visit Fraser Island daily to observe and photograph the dingoes. In the early days while visiting the Island, I noticed that there was a huge amount of rubbish on the beach, especially in the many creeks on the eastern side of the island.

The rubbish was literally choking these creeks which should have been pristine, especially in a World Heritage Area.

Day after day I drove past the same pieces of rubbish. Eventually, sick of seeing it, I took it apon myself to clean the beach, and have been doing so nearly every day since. It has been an interesting journey and I’ve learnt a lot about the environment along the way