Volunteers clean up after squatters

TANYA MURPHY

Squatters left two vehicles, a jet ski, a trailer, a fridge, a sofa, a pillow, shoes, mail, and loads of other rubbish at a turtle nesting site in Bramston Beach which was recently cleaned up by volunteers. Sea Shepherd Cairns Marine Debris team coordinator Tamsin Shepherd said with turtle nesting season starting in November, it wasn’t a moment too soon to clean up the beach.

“In total the team collected more than 360 kilograms of Doug Robins is the inaugural Access Arts Achievement award winner. The Aspire Awards celebrate the wonderful contribution people with a disability make to their professional and community setting. To be nominated the candidate must be over the age of 18 and can only be nominated by a colleague who can confirm their achievements. Doug digs deep to performrubbish which also included rubber, glass, and plastics,” she said.

“There were also more than 300 yellow pages phone books still in their wrappers, indicating that whoever got paid to deliver the phone books didn’t deliver them.

“The vehicles and jet ski had the number plates removed and had been stickered by the police, and although we removed many loose parts that were littering the beach we were not able to remove the vehicles.”

Sea Shepherd Cairns’ next beach clean up will be on Sunday, November 15 at Holloways Beach Esplanade, starting at 8:45am and all are invited to attend.

“Australia has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world and our oceans are home to a magnificent array of marine life,” said Ms Shepherd.

“Help us keep them safe by joining our team and together, we can stem the flow of plastic pollution.”

Pre-registration is essential so to get involved or for more information look up “Sea Shepherd Cairns” on Facebook.