Navy joins campaign to clean-up Australia

 

Sixty-five volunteers helped clean-up the area between Mindil Beach and Vestey’s Beach in Darwin.

Photo: LSPH Kaye Adams

Garbage bags in hand, PO Buxton, AB Mckenzie and AB De Reus help during HMAS Stirling’s Clean-Up Australia Day activities.

Photo: ABPH Kade Rogers

LCDR Michael Aichholzer, left, and LTCOL Stephen Hledik recently fished plenty of rubbish out of the pond at Camp Victory in Baghdad.

Beaches, roads, scrubland and lawns were given a Navy overhaul during this years Clean-Up Australia Day.
Around 600 personnel from HMAS Stirling, HMAS Harman and Darwin participated in the day, removing tonnes of rubbish from surrounding areas.

HMAS Stirling Commanding Officer, CMDR Phil Orchard said Stirling personnel had been involved in the annual cleanup since 2000.

“We’ve found that we have less and less rubbish to pick up each year,” CMDR Orchard said.

He said the cleanup attracted a lot of people to the cause, with the added incentive of a sausage sizzle dished up by CMDR Orchard and HMAS Stirling chefs afterwards.

“Everybody likes the barbecue, it gets them out of the office and it’s a great day for it,” CMDR Orchard said.

There were no unusual finds in WA this year, apart from a pair of pliers, with most rubbish being tin cans, and paper and plastic items, washed up from the WA coastline.

Personnel from HMAS Harman “hit the road” literally.

Commencing work at 8.30am the group moved along Woods Lane just outside Harman’s boundary fence.

With this area cleared they moved on to the Canberra Avenue approaches to the base.

“In just over three hours the team collected about 1000 kilograms of rubbish and significantly improved 2.5 kilometres of roadway outside the gangway,” Harman’s COSEC Rob Heath said.

In Darwin, sailors hit the Mindil and Vesteys beaches collecting several tonnes of rubbish with one batch filling a “one tonner”.

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