Ocean Crusaders come to Parramatta River
Ocean Crusaders, a waterway cleaning organisation specialising in large debris, come to Parramatta River.
Capacity building - LEP23_015_LLC_7
The issue
Transport NSW will usually retrieve large debris like trolleys or electric bikes and there are many community groups actively cleaning the Parramatta River. However, debris still ends up in hard-to-reach and out of sight places.
The solution
Ocean Crusaders have a crane truck, a barge, a fleet of kayaks and volunteers who are ready to tackle large and hard to reach debris. They spent two weeks along the river, predominantly in the Silverwater area, up Duck Creek and spending one day in the Inner West area around the Bay Run.
The impact
Over two weeks, four 15m3 skip bins were filled amassing about 50m3 of rubbish collected in total. All together at least 72 volunteers participated.
Learnings
Unfortunately, the clean ups were confirmed last minute. We couldn't advertise far in advance and so volunteer numbers per day, were low.
There was little interest from local councils along the Parramatta River, as Transport NSW can usually be relied upon to remove large debris from the river.
There were incredible amounts of rubbish accumulated just out of public sight.
Key facts
- There is a large accumulation of rubbish and large debris just out of sight of the public eye along the Parramatta River.
- Volunteers are a powerful resource to reach areas that are not prioritised by existing services.