26 Jan CLEAN UP AUSTRALIA DAY – WEDGE
A fantastic rollup of volunteers for our Clean Up Australia day at Wedge. The number of people caused a minor problem with assignment of volunteers to teams and areas, and handing out rubbish collection bags. The senior ranger from the Shire of Dandaragan arranged delivery of the orange Cleanup Australia Day bags to Wedge on short notice.
With 71 volunteers registered, plus several on the coordinating group and late-comers, we had nearly 80 people working through the settlement collecting rubbish. It was encouraging to have a range of age groups amongst the volunteers. A number of family groups participated, and with young children and dogs in tow, worked along the tracks and foraged in the adjacent scrub.
Our plan was to focus our cleanup efforts on the tracks around the settlement and the main beach. The problem was going to be the disposal of collected rubbish given the lack of capacity at the existing Wedge tip and the volume which could be collected if we included the untidy northern camping area for the number of volunteers expected. To utilise the large volunteer resource who turned up, our plans were adjusted on Sunday to re-include the western Wedge Reserve part of the camping area and the final stage of the sealed road into Wedge.
DEC were still negotiating with the Shires of Dandaragan and Gingin to accept Wedge rubbish into licensed local landfill sites. Unfortunately, political issues are hampering resolution and DEC were not able to make alternative disposal arrangements for the day. This left us no alternative but to deposit all the rubbish bags at the tip.
A sausage sizzle at the Community Centre for volunteers allowed us to thank the volunteers for a successful and productive cleanup day. Some suggestions were passed to the coordinating group on improvements for next year’s clean up day.