The iconic Australian event is now in its 30^th year.

In a report to Shoalhaven City Council's Finance and Welfare Committee, the city health surveyor Don Raffell said the first Clean Up Australia Day was an outstanding success.

Within the Shoalhaven alone there were three separate community-based committees who participated in the clean up.

The Clean Up Shoalhaven Committee, which covered an area from Shoalhaven Heads to Sussex Inlet, had 1798 people participate in collecting 55 tonnes of waste or ten semi-trailer loads and five car shell bodies.

For the Southern Shoalhaven Clean Up Committee, which covered from Bendalong to Pretty Beach, its numbers well exceeded registration. It had 1000 people turning out despite only 664 officially registered and collected 12 tonnes of rubbish.

At Tabourie Lake, the committee had 180 residents turn up and collected 7-8 tonnes of refuse over two days.

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Some interesting items were collected and cleaned up by participants in 1990.

Syringes were found at Grays Beach, Harry Sawkins Park, Lyrebird Park and South Nowra.

At Lyrebird Park 38 shopping trolleys were found, six at the river at the southern end of the Nowra Bridge and two at Harry Sawkins Park.

Eight thongs were on Commerong Island.

An abandoned cash register was found in Vincentia.

All the rubbish collected at Point Perpendicular was plastic.

Twenty bags of rubbish were collected by boat from the lake in Harry Sawkins Park.

A large amount of broken glass was cleaned up from Lyrebird Park.

Four car bodies were removed from the Culburra and Callala areas and two more car bodies were found.

Clean Up Australia Day first began as an event in Sydney in 1989 organised by Ian Kiernan, an avid sailor along with Kim McKay called Clean Up Sydney Harbour.

In 1990 Clean Up Australia Day was launched by then Prime Minister Bob Hawke and became a national event.

Since then almost 18 million Australians have donated their time for Clean Up Australia Day and more than 350,000 ute loads of rubbish have been removed.

This year's Clean Up Australia Day will be on Sunday, March 1.

Dozens of events will be held in the Shoalhaven. To find where the nearest one is: https://www.cleanupaustraliaday.org.au/join-a-clean-up.

Information provided by the Shoalhaven Historical Society.