Good Samaritans rope in dumped waste

Gunnedah’s good Samaritans are going to extraordinary lengths to improve the appearance of the natural landscape.

Volunteers from the Gunnedah Urban Landcare Group have been painstakingly removing trailer loads of waste from the base of Porcupine Lookout – even using ropes to help scale rockfaces to retrieve the material.

The illegally dumped rubbish includes everything from households appliances like washing machines and fridges, to computer monitors, televisions, tyres, fire extinguishers, multiple garage bins and even a car boot.

“It is like a tipping face from the lookout,” GULG president George Truman said.

“Environmentally it’s terrible … a disgrace.

“It’s just senseless vandalism as far we see it.

“We have the facilities, people are just too lazy to drive out to the tip and get rid of it.

“They just decide to do it here and spoil Gunnedah.”

The Gunnedah Shire Council’s fees and charges lists a small trailer or ute load of domestic waste as costing just $15.

Volunteers transported at least one trailer load of rubbish from the Porcupine site recently but workers say several more could be collected, such is the amount of waste in the area.

A fridge dumped over Porcupine Lookout, Gunnedah, is recovered the landcare volunteers.

Lesley Hathway has been a big part of the clean-up effort at the Crown Reserve which overlooks Stock Road.

Such is her determination to remove the waste, Lesley has been using ropes to scale the rocky slope and bring down the large items for removal by vehicle.

Although modest about her contribution, Lesley’s efforts have won the praise of many in the landcare group.

“It is no easy wander up that hill, you are slipping and sliding, it is so steep,” a fellow group member said. “She has worked incredibly hard.”

Lesley emphasised it was not all her work and many hands help keep the Porcupine Reserve clean.

She said garbage bins are provided for the rubbish but these facilities are either ignored by people who dump their litter on the ground, or worse, destroyed by vandals and tossed over the lookout as well.

Again, Lesley stressed the vast majority of people who visit the area do the right thing and it was only “a very small minority” who spoil it for everyone else.

“It’s the visual impact, the visual pollution that’s the biggest thing,” she said.

The landcare group is undertaking work to improve the area’s walking tracks, including new signage on the main trails.

A dumped shopping trolley at the base of the lookout.

These trails in the Porcupine area feature significant vegetation communities including the semi ever green vine thicket.

Recently the landcare group staged a flora and fauna identification event which revealed remarkable diversity of species in the area.

The event was hosted by former Gunnedah local and now associate professor of ecology Dr Tim Curran.

Tim grew up in Gunnedah and has been back here recently collecting plants from Bindea as part of a research project on plant flammability.

“It is great to see GULG members removing dumped rubbish from Bindea/Porcupine Reserve. It is a special place. There are plants there (spinifex) from a time when deserts were much closer to the coast, growing next to semi-evergreen vine thicket, a type of dry rainforest.

“The vine thicket and grassy white box woodland, which is also found on Bindea, are endangered ecological communities.

“Bindea is also important for all sorts of recreation.”

According to the NSW EPA, the maximum penalty for small-scale illegal dumping for an individual is $50,000 if the litter or waste is dumped in or on a sensitive place, or $25,000 if it is dumped on other public land or open private places.

The maximum penalty for a corporation is $100,000 if the litter or waste is dumped in or on a sensitive place, or $50,000 if it is dumped on other public land or open private places.

Discarded computer monitors.