By Craig Morris, vice president of the Wollongong Mountain Bike Club
As mountain bikers we love riding and enjoying the beauty of the escarpment above Wollongong. In doing so, we can’t help but notice the large volume of junk, rubbish and litter that accumulates. There is a noticeable volume of dumped rubbish and litter along Mount Keira Road, Clive Bissell Drive and Harry Graham Drive. When you look just off the roadside, there are also significant piles of junk dumped in various locations.
It’s such a shame that somewhere so beautiful is treated so poorly.
When a clean-up was suggested, the mountain biking community's response was swift and positive.
As the vice president of the Wollongong Mountain Bike Club, I took the initiative and organised a clean-up on Sunday, August 25. A post on the club’s Facebook page saw over 30 people volunteer within a few hours. By the time the day arrived a few weeks later, more than 40 mountain biking enthusiasts were on the escarpment clearing the junk, rubbish and litter along the three roads.
Wollongong Council were happy to help out too, providing bags, gloves, sharps containers and first aid kits (just in case) via the Rise & Shine program to help us in the clean-up.
The Wollongong Mountain Bike Club had teams working across various areas. The volunteers consisted of men, women and children of all ages. One group collected three trailer loads from Mount Keira Road alone.
There were teams on lower Harry Graham Drive, Clive Bissell Drive and about 30 people focused on the top of Mount Keira Road and Harry Graham Drive near the old coal loader.
The pictures show the results. Well over 100 car tyres and wheels, miscellaneous car parts and motor oil containers were collected. There were areas with several metres of electrical cabling, a heap of pool equipment, discarded furniture, gas canisters, pallets as well as corrugated iron sheeting.
The results were astounding, with several large piles and many smaller piles created for council to pick up and remove.
The whole area looked pristine again after we finished. The bush takes the focus again, it was such a nice feeling to know that we had done our bit, giving back to this beautiful environment.
