By Yana Bergmann Duquesne

Clean-up Australia Day started in 1990 and is now the largest community-based environmental event in Australia.
The idea is to organise events to mobilise people in order to protect and care more about their environment, and to increase people’s awareness of the need to build a sustainable environment. The organisation works with a wide range of organisations including residents, community groups, businesses, schools and councils.

This very important day in the countries event calendar is held every year during the first week-end of March as an annual focus on this difficult problem but, of course, everyone is invited to make everyday a Clean-up Australia Day.

Clean-up events can be started by anyone following a few pretty simple steps consisting of selecting a location, a time and a date.  Then you just have to register the details online.

In addition to the Clean-up Australia Day, The Great Northern Clean-up Day was conceived for people living above the tropic of Capricorn at a time of the year that better suits the tropical climate. It takes place in September, after the tourist season and before the wet season.

Emily Silverstone came to Port Douglas 4 years ago. When she discovered the World Heritage rainforest and its astonishing wildlife, she fell in love straight away. She immediately spent as much time as possible in the rainforest and got to know the animals living in the forest, especially the amazing Cassowaries. She is now active and involved in sustaining her local environment, she takes part in many environmental events.

As an example, she participated to a revegetation project held by an organisation called Rainforest Rescue and planted trees in a cleared area of the Daintree. This is when she first got alarmed by the pollution of the rainforest: she noticed that there was so much rubbish littered on the roadsides, which probably got thrown out of car windows. This really shocked her and she couldn’t understand how people could spoil the natural beauty of the rainforest and put all the animals in such danger. This fear for the animals was confirmed when she witnessed a cassowary eating a bread roll from a KFC box in Mission Beach.

Through volunteering for beach clean-ups with Heidi Taylor and her determined Tangaroa Blue organisation and to a clean-up along the mangroves and in the marina of Port Douglas, held by the Douglas Shire Sustainability Group, she realised how much she could personally make a difference. In Emily’s experience it appears that it is us humans who are the only ones discarding their rubbish so thoughtlessly, but conversely we are also the only ones with the power to clean up the rubbish to protect our eco-systems delicate balance. Everywhere rubbish is not safely placed in bins or recycled it is contributing to the destruction of our pristine environment and therefore to the health of the wildlife.  “There is a serious rubbish problem harming the nature”, she said, “And it’s got to stop.”

When Emily heard about the Clean-up Australia and the Great Northern Clean-up Day thanks to the Douglas shire council, she thought starting her own Clean-up Day in the Daintree would be a great idea.

She chose the location, date and time and pretty easily within a few clicks, registered her own Clean-up event to take place at Lync Haven, 44 Cape Tribulation Road, on Saturday the 26th of September 2015 from 10 am. The idea is to gather rubbish on both sides of the highway.  This highway is a thoroughfare for both cars and Cassowaries. Douglas Shire Council is providing recycling bags, gloves, sharps containers, hi-vis vests and data recording sheets for the event. Emily hopes to raise people’s awareness about littering and about how important it is for locals to conserve their own environment. “The birds are under threat enough from cars and dogs and the situation doesn’t need to be made worse for them but introducing foreign foods”, she said.

She spent the last few weeks advertising and promoting this community-based event, encouraging people to bring their family and friends.  She is keen to get local people more involved into returning the rainforest to an enjoyable condition for both the wildlife and us to share responsibly.The more people who volunteer and who devote a couple of hours cleaning their own local environment, the bigger the covered area and the bigger the difference is going to be.
Join Emily’s Daintree Clean-up Day here for the 26th of September: cleanupaustraliaday.org.au/