Students help clean up islands

Twenty-five students from Brisbane Water Secondary College Woy Woy campus's bushcraft program assisted in a bulk pick up of rubbish on Pelican Island and Mangrove Island and a clean-up of Rileys Island on Friday, March 15.

The aim of the clean-up was to remove the stacked items on Pelican Island and Mangrove Island and survey and remove waste from the western foreshore of Rileys Island.

Coordinator Mr Graham Johnston said the students did an outstanding job on the difficult task.

"A group of four students removed approximately 250kg of bulk from Pelican Island," said Mr Johnston.

"Rileys Island had abundant litter, with many oyster products and small litter items, which filled 25 bags, removed from the 500 metres of mangroves and high tide foreshore.

"Eight hundred and fifty kilograms of rubbish was removed from this area.

"Teaching staff reported many old plastic oyster trays partly stacked on the Saratoga corner of Rileys Island.

"The litter from these two areas totally filled one Council tip truck and half of another.

"The removal of the oyster stack on Mangrove Island was very repetitive, with hundreds of hardwood oyster racks, requiring many trips to the barge.

"This was very challenging and tiring for the students.

"The old boat, demolished the day before, was also removed.

"Total weight from Mangrove Island was 900kgs with a total of two tonne deposited at Woy Woy Tip in three full loads by the Council trucks.

"A total of 14 tonne has now been removed from Brisbane Waters, in the Woy Woy area," said Mr Johnston.

Media Release, 17 Mar 2013

Graham Johnston, MacMasters Beach