Jumping fences and diving into drains for Clean Up Australia Day

ARN’s Group Business Director Sharna King and Sydney/Melbourne Sales Director Erica Jenkins were invited to help media company Enigma keep Australia beautiful for Clean Up Australia Day recently.

Held annually on the first Sunday of March, Clean Up Australia Day encourages people to get together and lend a hand to keep our country clean.

Organised by Independent Media Agencies Australia (IMAA) and Enigma, the team of around twenty gave their Friday morning to scour Newcastle’s Bar Beach armed with hessian sacks, gloves and other kit provided by Clean Up Australia for the day.

Helping out in such a great location didn’t require much convincing for Sharna.

“Newcastle is known for its beaches and beauty, and with agencies already taking part in the city of Sydney (together with Enigma, who have a city office too), we went up there to help [Enigma Newcastle] in their local area. Plus, who doesn’t love a Friday by the beach,” Sharna said.

“It was an early start for us coming up from Sydney – we met at our local office in Macquarie Park (the middle conduit between us all) by 6:30am to ensure we had time for coffee first and get to Newcastle by 9am to meet the Enigma team.”

“We met at Bar Beach carpark, where we then all partnered up, donning gloves and taking hessian bags each. We all then split up as best we could heading in different directions to find as much rubbish as we could.”

“We had teams jumping fences, getting into the sand dune shrubbery, diving into drain areas (thankfully dry thanks to the heat up there), and scouring the local fence lines.”

Sharna believes Australia’s nature is worth fighting to preserve. Helping with events like Clean Up Australia Day and doing our part on the day-to-day is important to maintain the state of the environment.

“The animals in this country are some of the most unique in the world. We need to partake in anything that can help the longevity of this country, in every way,” said Sharna.

“It is our home. All of it. I grew up in country Australia and to have lush, green, clean surroundings on your doorstep, it’s something worth fighting to keep.”

With the average piece of plastic taking anywhere from 20 to 500 years to break down, it’s important we all pitch in to make sure we look after our shared home to keep it clean and our animals safe.

“Pick up your rubbish, if you see rubbish and where possible, put it in the bin. Volunteer for initiatives such as this and get those around you involved. A little will always go a long way in moves such as this,” Sharna said

“I feel, generally speaking, most of us contribute to the pieces we are in control of to ensure a stable and healthy future here in Australia.

“It’ll never be a quick fix, but as long as we as individuals and families own what we can in keeping our country clean and healthy, that’s really all we can do.”

After searching high and low during the morning, Sharna and the rest of the team retired to the local club, quenching their thirst and having a few bowls.

“We finished up around 11am for a local swim, then celebrated our hard work with a visit to the Bar Beach Bowling & Sporting Club where we had some lunch, drinks, and a few games of barefoot bowls.”

Clean Up Australia can help organise a clean-up any day of the year. Those wishing to contribute can follow the Clean Up Australia link to find out more information on how to help.

Find more information here.