Onkaparinga River — Clean Up Australia Day 6 March 2022

Paddlers were Charles and Marina Walker, Peter Carter, Maria Kubik, Anthony Wood and Van Hoang, Peter Vincent, Treya Derrington and Courtney Kirkwood with son William. A big thanks to the Paddlers and Kim Wooning who organised the event and met with us to explain the ropes and supply paddlers with large hessian bags and gloves for collecting rubbish.

There was an initial bit of chatter regarding the wind and whether the paddle would go ahead but the group was confident that we would be alright with the conditions, so we launched at 9.30am from Wearing Street, Port Noarlunga and headed upstream against the tide and 32 km/hr South Easterly winds in search of litter.

Paddlers dispersed and got straight to work landing on the banks of the river to see what they could find. A few thongs, a scooter and shorts were among the interesting items and surprisingly few face masks were found.

I (with half my motor not quite working) battled through the headwind in an old double so was grateful to land again to collect rubbish.

With the plan to meet Kim back at Wearing street at 12pm, we didn’t get all that far up river before we almost sailed back with ease.

Kim did a great job of organising the rubbish into the correct bags and we had a group photo and headed over to Becks Bakehouse for some large coffees, pizza and pies. It was an enjoyable morning whilst caring for the environment we so enjoy!