VOLUNTEERS came out in wonderful numbers to participate in this year’s Medowie Clean Up Australia Day.

Despite the inclement weather, organisers remarked that numbers were their best yet.

Tidy Towns member and Port Stephens Councillor Geoff Dingle told News Of The Area, “We had a wonderful turnout, which was great to see.”

“Up to fifty participants collected over eighty bags of rubbish.”

“We covered a lot of area in Medowie and the volunteers did a wonderful job,” he said

Volunteers came from many different community groups, as well as individual volunteers, including Medowie Lions, Medowie Tidy Towns and Medowie Scout Group.
Two small groups also registered teams in Medowie, which is refreshing to see.

Liz Stephens registered a clean up team on Ringwood Road, and Elissa Peattie registered a group on Sunningdale Crescent.

The end result of a hard day’s work was one overfilled skip and a very large area of the community covered and looking picture perfect.

Areas covered by the volunteers included parks, reserves, shopping centres, main roads, drainage areas, community centre, sports ovals and the skate park.
Items ranged from bottles and cans  to car parts, gym equipment, furniture, chairs, lounges, TV sets and general household rubbish.
As usual the biggest ticket litter items were fast-food containers and soft drink bottles.

Geoff Dingle remarked that it would be great to see New South Wales implement the refundable deposit legislation for the collection of bottles and cans currently in place in South Australia.

It is disappointing seeing so many items like those collected by these volunteers, but heartening to see such a wonderful, community minded group of people willing to lend a hand to keep our town tidy for everyone to enjoy.

Well done volunteers.