Creek Cleanup

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From: Moretonbayotter@aol.com

Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 05:54:05 EST

To: dnmadden@eis.net.au

Subject: NC Reports Nos 39, 40, and 41

Hello Damien

Here's the fresh report with corrections and also including todays effort - Verena's deadline was next Tues for April's 'Healthy Waterways Happening' - so I just faxed her the email of report No 39 and 40 so she'll got a rough idea of what we're doing

Juliet wasn't there today so I haven't got her figures for last year - we can always add them later

Thanks for the yellow jersey and the loan of the water quality manual -

I've attempted to write a this report for the web page - please feel free to rewrite add/amend in any way that will aid the cause

Happy Easter 

Get Dirty on litter in Norman Creek Mangroves

Introduction

Our Creek Cleanup campaign is now entering its second year. Thanks to those concerned members of the community, in 2004 we amassed a collection of over 56,977 pieces of litter in 481 Clean up Australia Day bags (not including items too big for the bags). Community volunteer hours totalled 472 hours.  Special mention and thanks to Damien and N4C and the Buranda State School Bush Care Group for their hard work and support.

So far this year, we've already collected 9,971 pieces in 89 bags. With your support by the end of the year, we're aiming to have cleared all the mangrove lined banks of litter from the tidal sections of Norman Creek from Stones Corner to the mouth where it flows into the Brisbane River - a target of one hundred thousand pieces of litter/rubbish to be removed out of the environment by the end of 2005.

The litter problem in the most urbanised catchment in Queensland is no longer in the 'too hard' basket! In fact, we're leading the way.

Enviropods

Last Sunday afternoon I was walking along Logan Rd, at the Shopping Centre at Stones Corner when I happened to notice that Enviropod trash baskets have been fitted beneath storm water grills along the road here. This is very good news for our campaign. My enquires so far indicate the BCC installed them some time after June/Sept 2003 (just before our clean up started.) They were installed at 10 different locations and it's not known exactly when the Logan Rd ones were installed - There is also a trial in Albert /Adelaide St City of 4 different types of trash baskets. The storm water grills at the shopping centre, intersection of Cavendish Rd and Old Cleveland Rd would be another suggested site for enviropods.

Plastics in the environment

Plastic bottles have increasingly replaced glass bottles over the last 25 years as the population increases - so what we have found in the mangroves has accumulated over the last 25 years - less what has been flushed by the tides and flood events and is now floating around in the Pacific. In 1992 -93 a section of Norman Creek at Moorhen Flats was diverted into public parklands - the mangroves re established and assisted in trapping the litter over the last 10 years.

The Clean up Australia web site www.cleanup.com gives the following breakdown times for soft plastics 20 - 1000 years, aluminium cans 80 -100 years, glass 1,000,000 years and hard plastics indefinitely - hence the obvious need to keep them out of our waterways. Soft plastics are mistaken for jelly fish by our turtles and plastic bags get caught up in bird's beaks, legs and wings - whales also swallow plastic bags

BCC litter prevention initiatives

The BCC SQIDS (storm water Quality Improvement Devices) in service at Deshon St and Morley Sts are constantly collecting floating plastics and debris on the out-going tides. BCC ward crew tidies the Skate Ramp area weekly but the litter reappears at an alarming rate - Ian Eskdale from EPA told me about a book 'Fostering Sustainable Behaviour - An Introduction to Community-based Social Marketing - prompts and source reduction strategies eg we need some of the more responsible skateboard lads to create a bit of peer pressure by making the choice of picking up used drink bottles as they leave and chuck 'em in the bins provided - just like the no smoking add on TV says. "We don't litter here any more" - remember Kylie's 'prompt' at the Skate Park launch This Skate Park is for you

So Please don't litter

A highly visible weld mesh recycling cage for cans and bottles would be another prompt/suggestion for the Skate Park

Steve Davis, BCC Area Co-ordinator for Roads and Drainage informs me that he has a work crew to clean the car park and bank behind the Stones Corner each Sunday morning. Plans are also in the pipeline (when funding is approved) for tackling the litter coming out of Lerna St. I know Damien has called for the underground water channel (Kingfisher Creek) and culverts to be opened up to Tristram Park not only for water quality monitoring but due to their insufficient storm water capacity.

The hopeful end result of the BCC preventative strategies is that as we remove the accumulated litter from the tidal section of Norman Creek mangroves, the BCC strategies will result in less litter ending up in the mangroves and creek in the future. 

Healthy Waterways

The Maritime Care boat regularly works Norman Creek as well, removing floating litter and the foot crew also works the banks (awaiting figures from Verena)

Next Major Cleanup

Next major clean up is being organised for Sat 28 May not 21 May (ops! -You'd think

I could read a tide book by now! Hopefully we'll have the monthly clean up dates and sites on the Webb page www.n4c.org.au events/creek cleanup - but if you get the urge before then just give us a ring or grab a bag and get started yourself! Remember we have to work around the tides.

Nominated sites include

· the car park and mangrove bank behind Stones Corner Shops

· Coorparoo Creek from Skate Park to mouth

· Mangrove banks adjacent to Coorparoo Secondary College

· Mangrove banks adjacent to Churchie

· Bridgewater Creek

· Edge of mangroves bordering Heath Park

Insurance coverage

As Damien found out when he injured himself at the Demonstration Catchment Project (DCP) site, the insurance cover in place is quite limited so please be careful and responsible for your own safety - wear sturdy boots and gloves - log sleeved shirts and old jeans and don't forget your hat and water bottle. 

Bowies Flats Constructed Wetlands Site, Bridgewater Creek

Rebecca and Kelly report they're been collecting 200 pieces of litter each weekend (since the Major cleanup in Nov) from the Bridgewater Creek Bowies Flats Constructed Wetlands. These figures have been added to our tally The girls have adopted this site and are doing an excellent job and weeding too - Damien tells me Bowies Flats is an official water testing site and Carolyn from Griffith Uni is conducting the testing at this site - the results are cause for concern and as I understand it, the elevated levels found will now be the subject of identifying the causes - a job for the experts

Street Cleanup March Report

With the forecast of rain for Friday I decided to do a quick cleanup of low lying Streets near Norman Creek - it much easier to clear the streets than clearing the mangroves - so knocking off work at 4:30pm …….

Date Thursday 17th March 05 Trip 39 5:15 - 6:30pm    

Sites Cambridge St and skate Park area 250 pieces inc 2 bongs

       Lerna St and Norman St 233 pieces

       Deshon St near Moorhen Flats 124 pieces

                                                                    total   607

Disposal 5 bags placed behind Shipping Container Moorhen Flats

Wildlife lot of noisy fly foxes in large tree Lerna St- 50m down from footbridge

Mangrove Cleanup 19 March Report

One of the spots I spotted last year that we didn't get to last year was at the bottom of the hill at the dead end Bates Court where Vulture St East curves downhill to Stanley St East) - just upstream of Churchie

Date Sat 19th March 05 Trip 40 9:00 am - 12:15

Site        Bates Court

Quantity 800 pieces in 50m of mangrove bank

       2 x 125 sharps bin

       2 x 100ml syringes

       1 car tyre

       1 car tyre and rim

       1 crab pot

       1 plastic milk crate

       2 x toilet plastic cisterns

Disposal 8 Clean Up Aust Days bags placed behind shipping container at Moorhen Flats

Wild Life 3 white faced grey herons squabbling over the power pole

During this mornings cleanup I got to meet one of the house owners bordering the Creek - Juliet's greeting was "You've beaten me to it!" She had been overseas for the last 6 months but used to clear this area regularly "until she ran out of  bags"! Yes, it's another key hot spot to add to the list, but it made my day to know a local who has been doing something about it and trying to interest her neighbours. We'll be back to give her a hand…and with more Clean Up Aust Day bags! 

Good news I checked out the mangrove banks down stream of the flying fox colony along Rome St - they are narrow and the current is fast running and almost completely free of litter - you beauty!! I saw some very old corrugated iron ship building sheds of historical interest and a number of bay cruiser tied up to old wooden moorings. Further downstream at Heath Park there is some litter along the edge of the mangroves that will need a trip to collect. The mangrove bank next to the picnic table though needs urgent attention

Mangrove Cleanup 26 March Report

Date        26 March 05 (Easter Saturday) Trip No 41 2:30 - 5:30pm

Site 1        Heath Park mangroves near picnic table   (2:30 - 3pm)

Quantity 209 pieces of litter (lot of grey plastic bags)

Site 2        Bates Court to Stanley St East  (50m)

Quantity 300 pieces of litter

             2 car tyres

             1 car tyre and rim

             1 bong

             1 empty wallet with ID - will be handed into Police

             1 ladies handbag

             noticed a wheelie bin in creek (couldn't get to it)

Disposal 4 Clean Up Aust Day bags placed behind Shipping container Moorhen Flats

Uniform  I've now had an N4C yellow jersey bestowed on me - N4C will now be easily identified in the mangroves!!

…….

From: Moretonbayotter@aol.com
Date: Mon Nov 1, 2004 9:15:48 PM Australia/Brisbane
To: dnmadden@eis.net.au
Subject: Skate Board Upgrade Launch

Skate Board Ramp Upgrade Launch - Coorparoo Commons
Sat 27 Oct 2004

As part of our litter awareness/prevention strategy, Damien and Tony attended the launch of the Skate Park Upgrade. We met BCC officers Kylie Dyer, Active and Open spaces Sports and Recreation community officer and Barry who assisted in setting up the council displays and the clean up prior and during the event. The Coorparoo Lions ran the free sausage sizzle and soft drinks for $1. A hip hop band provided live entertainment. N4C displayed its DCP and Bowie Flats posters and the "Get Dirty on Litter in Norman Creek Mangroves" sign highlighting our tally of 49,299 items of litter, 432 bags over 400 volunteer hours and 6 km of creek.

Kathryn Birmingham's launch speech detailed the lobbying which went into obtaining the funds for the construction of the upgrade and gave our litter campaign a plug. "The local environmental group is here today" and "chided the young skate board guns in a motherly way about house keeping chores of keeping the area clean and tidy due Norman Creek being nearby. State MP Gary Fenlan also spoke.

There was to be a tree planting exercise as well by some of the older skate boarders who'd shown interest in the past however this did not eventuate for some reason.

During the course of the afternoon Barry collected over 3 clean up Aust bags and Tony 3 bags of litter from along Cambridge St, around the skate ramp and adjacent creek bank and another 2 bags from the bank at the mouth of Coorparoo Creek.

Kylie and Barry were very much aware of the litter problem and Kylie had made up signs to attach on the wheelie bins. Barry is sometimes part of the Monday morning BCC work crew that tidies the skate ramp area and told us that around Christmas it's much worse. We were able to exchange ideas on prevention methods (above the noise from the band!) Tony was able to hand out the "Gutful of Plastic" whale posters which were well received by the boys. Unfortunately, some of lads helped themselves to the aquarium of balls I brought to illustrate how many of them end up in the creek. As Kathryn warned I won't be happy if I find them back in the mangroves

It was reassuring to know that a work crew regularly cleans up the skate ramp area on a Monday morning. The big concern is prolonged heavy rain from lows coming down the coast in late Jan, Feb, March, April - the area must be cleaned before the water rises and a cleanup crew needs to be on standby - maybe we need a roster of persons with their contact phone number who could be on the spot at short notice. The same thinking applies to the car park area behind the Stones Corner shops, and streets close to the creek eg Lerna, Cambridge, Clarence, Morley and Deshon. It's much easy picking up rubbish from the street then from the mud banks of the creek.

Basically if heavy rain is forecast the words got to get out fast via the media to mobilise crews to clean up the streets in the catchment. With co-operation from BCC crews and street cleaning machines and our growing band of volunteers I'm sure we can do it.

I'm wondering whether our efforts in January/February/March should be directed towards street/park and edge of mangroves clean ups just before forecast rain. Then from May/winter 2005 we could redo the mangrove banks hot spots again - hopefully we'd find a lot than in 2004.

Bridgewater Creek near Damien's place is next in our sights to clean out. Some may have seen the article in the Courier Mail "Litter throws out an ugly Challenge" written by retired MP Bill Hewitt. It just so happens that Damien knows that his wife is patron of the netball association whose grounds are adjacent to Bridge water creek. We're confident of enlisting their help in the clean up.

Photos from cleanup (11 Aug 2004)

Update from Tony (Aug 2004)

From: Moretonbayotter@aol.com
Date: Sun Aug 1, 2004 4:21:12 PM Australia/Brisbane
To: dnmadden@eis.net.au
Subject: NC Mangrove Clean up Trip No 16

Hello Damien

The 6th Port of Brisbane River Clean at Wynnum Creek is next Sun not today, so we took the 'Moreton Bay Otter' out for a joy ride - the Bay was absolutely beautiful, just what I needed after 3 months of hard labour in the mangroves! Well Saturdays only

Next Sat and the following I'm probably having time out but on Exhibition Wed I was really hoping that we could do a one off trip to Coorparoo Creek - we'd get quite a few metres done - lot of loose litter and easy to get at - I need a break from the really difficult sections of mangrove - getting cranky!! then back to Caswell St if you want.

Could you phone River Clean ph38467444 and try to book them in for 'behind the shops at Coorparoo or the walkway further down' - if not, we could try to arrange with the Buranda Bushcare perhaps in the Sept School holidays when I'm taking a week off

I wasa thinking we should do a letter drop in Chorlton St - copies of DPI's Dr Dawn Couchmans 'adopt a mangrove' and a small newsetter with what we've done encouraging them to keep their street clean

Date 31 July 2004 - Trip No 16 - 1-5pm (low tide 4pm)
Site Kingfisher Creek - From the fig tree on bank of NC in front of Caswell St car park to 175m along Kingfisher Creek
Access Caswell St car park

Quantity - Fig tree at Norman Creek in front of Caswell St carpark to wire fence of first business premises (65m) - Damien 500 pieces Tony 100 (plus all the dumped display leaflets) Wire fence (about 15m past mouth of Kingfisher Creek) to 175m mark,
Tony 430 pieces Damien 50 pieces

Larger items (along Norman Creek)
Leaflets "Stain Busters Cleaning system" ph 38305705 (hundreds of them in a pile - 2 cleanup Aust Day bag fulls)
A display folder with large number of plastic insert pages (couldn't read)
Trampoline
A motor vehicle tail pipe and differential
2 sinks
an inner spring mattress

Larger items along Kingfisher Creek
3 x electrical cord reels
6 x 1.5m lengths of conduit and 1x 2m length of PVC
4m length of fly screen
8 pieces of clothing/rags
a rusty umbrella - one spike got me

Caswell St carpark - Tony 80 pieces + a TV (picked up most of the broken glass) and microwave (done after Damien left)

Disposal - BCC to collect from Caswell St Reserve next week

Total = 1,100 pieces of litter plus the leaflets and heavy items above (didn't count the pieces of glass) 200m done

Trip outline - Damien and I cleaned up the area near the fig tree (the dumped leaflets, clothing, plastics etc and a discarded plastic wrapper for a Sharps Kit -1ml x27g Pack listing the contents- I won't go there!!) Then Damien worked his way about 65m along the Norman Creek bank to just down past the mouth of Kingfisher Creek. I commenced at this later mark and worked from there for 150m. Not a lot of litter but very hard to get at. (for statistical purposes we mark out 50m lengths with flags and BCC red top hats). The bank was about 6m wide sloping bank dropping straight down about 1m to the creek. The bank is only wide enough for one mangrove tree. These were big old trees with low branches making it quite difficult to get round them. The 1m easement at the top of the bank was overgrown with weeds and vines and had to be trampled down to get past. (if only I had a machetti!!) With no other access than where we started the full bags had to be dragged all the way back - all in all, a pretty tough session again Along the bank we noted a number rusted buckets which broke when trying to remove also a number of heavy metal pieces which couldn't be moved Of interest was a small clearing of mangroves in front of the back gate of a blue house (no 23 Chorlton St) where we found about 100 pieces of litter - the clearing perhaps caused an eddy which funnelled the litter onto the bank. I also found a large plastic soft drink bottle here with a number of barnacles encrusted off it - first one I've found with barnacles - would be really interesting to know how long its been in the water and how far its floated About 175m from the mouth of Kingfisher Creek I could go no further - a sharp bend in the creek and the bank had been gouged out with a 2 or 3 m drop, only a few man made stairs at the back of houses the only way down - a little further around the bend (about 25m) was where Tom and I had left off last week at just past the Loot Homeware carpark

Kingfisher Creek cleared out of a total of 5,620 pieces of litter Damien and I celebrated with a stubby of Sovereign - (also to kick off the smorgasboard of footy that nite - one for Georgie Gregan)

Litter Ratio - 50m Norman Creek bank 500 pieces plus dumped leaflets 150m Kingfisher about 100 pieces per 50m

Tally for Norman Creek is now 19,690

News - Damien has now acquired BCC map of the NC catchment with the Storm water outlets marked - essential for our litter prevention strategies

Thanks again for the support