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Island Clean Up Australia Day
This year’s Clean Up Australia on Scotland Island was a beautiful illustration of community spirit as helpers of all ages, from 3 to 80, put on gloves and pitched in to give the island a good clean up.
From tiny pieces of plastic, cigarette butts and broken glass to motorbikes and abandoned boats, the land-based volunteers plus Cass Gye and her team of Shane O’Neill, Ben and Greg in the Community Vehicle and Toby and his barge helpers worked hand-in-hand to move everything to the waterfront for collection and transfer to the mainland.
My 80-year-old mum snorkelled around Cargo wharf, picking up what she could while Nicole Thompson, with a tiny baby strapped to her front and a toddler in tow, supervised the clean up around the Cargo shoreline.
Cass started the island Clean Up 30 years ago and is still a huge part of the logistics team. Toby’s been supporting for 23 years. He remembers that first Clean Up after he took over the barge business, “we took more than 10 tons of stuff off the island and bays!”.
This year Toby was ably backed up by Vinny, Jason, Johnny, Jasper, Wags, Dave Gibbs and Rhys Dwyer. It’s not all work for the guys – a dozen chops with Johnny Moses’ special mint jelly is breakfast and a sausage sizzle, thanks to Carrie Towers’ annual donation, completes the day’s work.
On behalf of the community, thanks to Cass and Toby for their longstanding service, and to Ian Holley for registering us to be part of the national effort and your tireless contribution on Sunday.
Let’s now keep the island rubbish-free and looking beautiful.
Lisa Ratcliff
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