Army of volunteers clear up massive amount of plastic and debris from Pitt Town creek

We visited Pitt Town yesterday – Friday – to see the final day of an intensive 4-day clean-up at Bardenarang Creek after the March floods dragged plastic sheeting and a load of debris down the water course, choking the creek.

It’s certainly taken a while to get it cleaned up, despite an army of volunteers, but it was a massive task and even now there are still many fallen trees in the creek, lots of earth has been swept away from the steep creek sides, while plastic still flutters in some trees above and back from the creek.

Interestingly, Friendship Bridge, which crosses the creek on Pitt Town Bottoms Rd and was at the centre of the clean-up, is said to be the place where Europeans and Darug Aboriginals first met in the district, way back in 1791.

The Creek runs through the Bardenarang Gully from Pitt Town lagoon to the Hawkesbury River. When the floods came back in March the water roared through and brought with it massive amounts of plastic.

Andy Young from Disaster Relief Australia (left), with Peter Ryan, President of the Pitt Town Progress Association

The clean-up has been a full-on affair, with Disaster Relief Australia (DRA) – they’re a bunch of volunteers, many of them veterans from the defence forces – joining with the very active Pitt Town Progress Association, and the Council who helped marshal volunteers from companies including National Australia Bank, Allianz insurance and Salesforce.

Over four days they’ve taken around 40 cubic metres of plastic out of the creek and untangled it from the surrounding trees and creek banks. That’s 40 cu m packed in tight, so a large amount of plastic.

On Friday around 70 volunteers were on site and all were well aware of the possibility of another flood event this weekend, and maybe into next week. As they worked, a local farmer was tractoring back and forth on Pitt Town Bottoms Rd, moving large items to higher ground.

Andy Young, the DFA leader on the ground, told the Post, “we’ve been here for the week. Council gave us this task because of the visual affect of all that plastic and debris.”

“We’re a disaster recovery agency and we work specifically in that area, and during the last few days the volunteers have cleared around 2km either side of the bridge.”

The majority of the debris is plastic coming down from agriculture or businesses – no-one is sure where it’s all come from. Some are massive rolls of plastic. The water got to such a height a lot of it has unwound and stuck high in the trees.

“There is obviously still more upstream but our idea is to stay in the Hawkesbury and come back here if tasked by council,” Mr Young said.

The flood-ravaged creek, and just some of the plastic pollution

“SES provide the immediate response and then we come in behind any natural disaster, fire or flood, and help out the community and help with the clean-up, and we’re happy to do it to help people get back on their feet.”

President of the Pitt Town Progress Association, Peter Ryan, who has been at the clean-up with fellow Association members, told the Post the work and effort put in by all the volunteers, “has been tremendous”.

“What they have achieved is remarkable. When you see all the plastic and rubbish, it was disgusting, and it was an environmental disaster to tell the truth.”

“It’s been building up after the last three floods. This creek flows upstream to start with and then it comes back out again, so it drags debris down again.

“There’s just so much plastic in the environment, and I’m not even sure where it’s all coming from, whether it’s industrial sites or farms, but it’s here.

“When it goes down the river, of course it ends up in the ocean, so it’s important to get it here now.

“I can remember the floods when I was a young bloke,” says Mr Ryan, “and I have never seen such a dirty flood in all my life as these last ones. I remember the farmers way back, and they would more or less go down and remove a few trees and a bit of debris, then they’d go to work again, but now there are just plastics in everything.”

If you’d like to see more, Councillor Nathan Zamprogno – who has been helping raise awareness about the state of the creek and also pushed for action from Council – has put together a really good video on the before and after situation, which you can see here.

Well worth a look.

If you are already a Hawkesbury Post supporter, thank you! Our site is free, relying on our supporters to operate. Independent journalism is more important than ever, please consider contributing.

Click here to see how

Don’t pay so you can read it. Pay so everybody can read it!