Adelaide, SA: #SeaToSource National Day of Action

20 April 2021 Revive

Adelaide residents were in boots and all last Sunday 11th April, cleaning up the Blue Gum Park and learning more about the environment around them.

This post was written by Emily Zhang, CVA Revive Project Officer in the South Australia Region.

As a part of the #SeaToSource project, the National Day of Action event aims to increase public awareness on the issue of litter and plastic reduction by inviting the general public to a fun clean-up day.

The event took place on one of Adelaide CBD’s busiest parklands – the Blue Gum Park/Kurangga (Park 20). Park 20 is home to Tree Climb Adelaide, a Petanque court, bike track for kids, hockey and tennis court, and a small patch of open woodlands which is home to many native animals such as the brushtail possum and rainbow lorikeets. This special place is also part of the course for the Glen Osmond Creek, which in both summer and winter suffers from litter pollution.

On the National Day of Action itself, we hosted 35 local volunteers who cleaned up 800m of the parkland and riverbed (currently dried). The litter collected totalled over 2,400 pieces, which weighed more than 55.1kg.

Amazingly, over 61% of all litter collected was plastic items, with the second largest category being broken glasses (12%), and paper materials (11%). Some of our volunteers were shocked at the discovery of just how much litter there is in the Glen Osmond River, but no one was surprised that the majority of rubbish found was plastic items.

Apart from the parkland clean-up, our volunteers also met with the charismatic Kaurna educator Tamaru from the Deadly Mob Program and the keepers of Warrawong Wildlife Sanctuary with their well-fed animals. Their entourage of animals included a shingle-back, blue-tongue lizard, carpet python, eastern-bearded dragon, olive python and an endangered squirrel glider.

Needless to say, everyone enjoyed these magical times, but more importantly we found that by volunteers learning more about our environment’s nature, culture, and biodiversity, it helps to shape their perception of this land as a living and breathing being that requires looking after.

I would like to send specific gratitude to everyone involved on the day including the Warrawong Wildlife Sanctuary who delivered an amazing native animal showcase to our volunteers, the charismatic and charming Tamaru of the Deadly Mob Program for providing such an informative Kaurna tour, and the Sustainability Team at Adelaide City Council that supported our event from day one. Also special thanks goes to Suzanne and Ashleigh from Tree Climb Adelaide who helped me strategise the event location, and Sam, who took pity in my strengthless arms and carried the gazebo on my behalf.