A NORTH Nowra woman has called for a rubbish bin to be established near a popular beach area on the banks of the Shoalhaven River, which she says resembled “a rubbish tip” last week.
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Michelle Ford frequents the beach area at the end of Fairway Drive at North Nowra, adjacent to the Nowra Golf Course facing the Shoalhaven River.
“It is a lovely spot and along with some friends I often go swimming off the beach,” she said.
“Last Thursday we were astounded by the amount of rubbish that was left in the area.”
She said the area was littered with all kinds of plastic, bottles, cans and even discarded bait in its packaging, while there was also rubbish floating in the river itself.
“We collected it all and filled three large rubbish bags,” she said.
Ms Ford said she contacted Shoalhaven City Council and the golf club but was unable to get any answers as to who was responsible for the area.
“I just couldn’t believe the state it was in,” she said.
“It is only a relatively small area, but obviously a lot of people use it.
“There was rubbish everywhere. It’s certainly not a good look for a tourist area.
“There are no rubbish bins in the area, even up in the golf club car park.”
Shoalhaven City Council’s Parks and Facilities manager Brett Carter said the area was controlled by council but did not have a regular litter collection.
“We will monitor the site and if it meets our criteria we might install a bin,” he said.
“We are also investigating the installation of signage
to encourage people not to litter.
“Council has 1400 sites it maintains and probably only a quarter of those have bins.
“We find after we monitor a location most of the time bins aren’t needed.
“We encourage people to take their litter home with them and also welcome anyone who would like to become volunteers and clean up areas.”
A spokesperson for the Nowra Golf Club said course staff maintained a number of foreshore areas along the riverbank but the beach area falls outside the course perimeter fence.
“We do have a parcel of land along that area that is used as the fourth tee but the beach area is definitely not part of that and something we don’t control,” the spokesperson said.
“Our veterans’ club has formed it’s own Landcare group and has done a lot of work to stabilise the bank area along the sixth fairway that also faces the river and has even established a mangrove nursery and built up that area.”
The spokesperson said the group constantly cleaned up a large quantity of rubbish deposited over the escarpment at the rear of the course.
