WITH THOUSANDS of people across Australia participating in annual Clean Up Australia Day events every year, the Whitsunday people were not shy about doing their part and really stepped up.
Litter and debris collections took part all over the region, on Sunday, March 5, by both residents and businesses, all eager to clean up.
The team at Coral Sea Marina Resort decided this year was their turn to make the pledge and commit to making a difference in their own backyard.
In partnership with Tangaroa Blue Foundation, Coral Sea Marina Resort put the call out to the Whitsunday community to come and clean up a slice of paradise.
More than 100 volunteers, young and old, came out to do their bit and collect litter on land and at sea.
Locations included the Bicentennial Walkway, from Cannonvale Beach all the way through to Port of Airlie, the main street of Airlie Beach, Waterson Way, and beyond land with volunteers out on the water cleaning off the rock walls and beaches.
Collection bags were provided by Tangaroa Blue, as part of their Reef Clean program, with all the litter collected being sorted, monitored and weighed, with the data then being inputted into the Australian Marine Debris Initiative database for further analysis.
Approximately 350kg of litter was collected on the day.
Coral Sea Marina’s head of marketing and business development Joscelyn O’Keefe said they were amazed by the number of volunteers who joined the clean-up.
“Clean Up Australia Day was once again a fantastic opportunity for the local community to band together and collectively work towards protecting our beautiful backyard,” Ms O’Keefe said.
“We were amazed by the incredible number of volunteers who braved the heat and joined us in picking up litter throughout Airlie Beach and Cannonvale, and to those who hopped on board vessels to clean beaches and rock walls only accessible by boat.
“With Tangaroa Blue auditing the collected litter and recording findings in the Australian Marine Debris database, we can ensure that every piece of litter that is removed provides valuable information and the evidence we need to all push for environmental change.”
Just around the corner, Whitsunday Escape also took out two charter boats, with 30 crew made up of local volunteers.
The group collected more than 250kg of litter from Double Cone Island, in just four hours.
PRD Whitsunday also got into the spirit and were spotted collecting rubbish in Cannonvale!
