Clean-up Lake Burley Griffin Day is back for the fourth year running on Sunday 14 November from 9am to 12pm.
During National Recycling Week, 8-14 November, the public is encouraged to volunteer and help clean up the Lake either on foot, dragon boat, kayak, canoe, rowing tinnies or stand-up paddle boards.
Clean-up coordinator, Tammy Ven Dange, said in previous years they’ve had close to 140 people turn up across the four locations and it would be fantastic to see even more this year.
“With more people enjoying the outdoors and Lake Burley Griffin during this pandemic, we hope they appreciate this amazing resource even more. This event is a great way for people to give back by giving LBG a good clean,” Ms Van Dange said.
“LBG is important for the community and it’s some of our wildlife’s home, so it’s important we take care of it. We can’t blame anyone else for the rubbish in the Lake, and there’s lots of it – I paddle out there a couple of times a week and I see lots of bottles floating on the surface, not to mention the ones we can’t see that have sunk to the bottom.”
Last year, volunteers collected over 100 bags of rubbish, including many plastic and industrial items which were too large to fit into the bags.
“Bottles are the most obvious bits of rubbish we find because they float, but we regularly find large items from construction sites, like milk crates, and we find unusual items near stormwater drains. We’ve seen weird things like car parts, sleeping bags, clothes, inflatable toys, drills and other machinery, but the most frequent are bottles and cans,” Ms Ven Dange said.
“LBG is a huge resource for Canberra and during lockdown a lot of people who might not normally enjoy the Lake had no other choice since everything was shut, so we’re hoping they can appreciate it even more and come down to help us clean it up.”
The event is totally volunteer run and organised, and is sponsored by Clean Up Australia, the Burley Griffin Canoe Club, Capital Lakes Rowing Club, and the Yarralumla Residents Association.
To register, head down to either the Burley Griffin Canoe Club, Weston Park, Black Mountain Peninsula, or Capital Lakes Rowing Club at 8.30am on the day.
Find more information on the Clean-up Lake Burley Griffin Day Facebook page.
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