By Parker McKenzie
Rotary Club and Emerald & District and Johns Hill Landcare Group’s Clean Up Australia Day event on Sunday 19 March saw 34 people get involved in the first clean-up of Hogan Park since 2019.
Emerald Rotary President Marcus Adams said he expects the event will now be held annually due to the success in 2023.
“We’re all passionate about Emerald, the amount of rubbish and other stuff that we found was pretty ordinary,” he said.
“I think our members would say that’s something that we can do on a yearly basis and make a bit of a difference to our township.”
The event was held two weeks after the ‘official’ Clean Up Australia Day and was an initiative organised by the Emerald Rotary Environment and Sustainability Committee.
President of John Hill Landcare Jenny Lyndon the event couldn’t have happened without the work of the Rotary Club.
“We’d love to do future events because they’re newly into sustainability and the environment because we are baby boomers and tired out really,” she said.
“It’s a fantastic national event, even though it is one day lots of groups do Clean up Australia Days all the time.”
Rubbish collected during the event was removed by Cardinia Council by the next morning, which Ms Lyndon said was “brilliant.”
“I have to give a little shout-out to the Cardinia Council because it was a registered Cleanup Australia Day and that means the council agrees to pick up the rubbish,” she said.
“The next morning when I was walking the dog, the rubbish was gone.”
The rubbish included old chairs, bottles, other assorted litter and drug paraphernalia.
Mr Adams said in addition to the Landcare and Rotary volunteers, other community members joined in to help clean up Hogan Park.
“That was fantastic too, to see that there were other people who were passionate about cleaning up the local community,” he said.
“This year, we’ve really focused on collaborating with a lot of the local other local community clubs.”
