Clean Up Australia Day – who’s in?

Sick of seeing masks, plastic bottles and other rubbish in your waterways? What better opportunity to get people together for a Clean Up paddle on Clean Up Australia Day (March 6)! 

Paddle Australia are encouraging as many clubs as possible across the country to hold a clean up paddle on Clean Up Australia Day. PaddleNSW has led the charge in recent years, with nine clubs/groups participating last year; and Paddle Australia would love to see participation in every state across Australia this year.

Clean Up paddles not only make your waterway nicer to paddle on (and we’re sure the fish, frogs, turtles and birds are grateful too), but they are also a great way to get new members and work with others in the community. Clean Up Australia Day is the easiest day of the year to get people along on a clean up paddle… so make the most of it!

Here’s what you need to do:

  • Register your event here on the Clean Up Australia Day website, include “Paddle Australia” in the event title, and let us know. This way, it will be added to our hub page on the Clean Up Australia Day website.
  • Send us statistics and photos afterward. The stats we need are: number of participants, number of 12L bags collected and kgs of rubbish collected. This helps us see the contribution that the paddling community is making to cleaning up our waterways, plus it helps with funding applications.
  • You can get your club involved, or otherwise just grab a friend or two – it all counts and makes a difference. 
  • Check out these resources from PaddleNSW on how to organise a clean up paddle, and a risk assessment for clean up paddles here.

What you get:

  • Clean Up Australia Day will send you a free kit (gloves, rubbish collection bags made from corn starch, mini first aid kit, hi vis vest, sharps box, hand sanitiser etc).  
  • Listing on the Clean Up Australia Day Paddle Australia hub page – anyone can look up where clean up paddles are happening, and find your paddle event.
  • Chance to win a prize/award for your club/group from Paddle Australia
  • Sense of satisfaction for cleaning up your patch, some social cred, and potentially more members for your club!

Please send all event details and inquiries to info@paddle.org.au 

We are with you on the water… cleaner water

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