MILDURA residents are renewing a plea to council to make Apex Beach an alcohol-free zone.
Broken glass, bottles, rubbish, cigarette butts, wrappers and debris were strewn across the beach after Australia Day celebrations on Thursday evening.
Visitors Demi Skoufis from Sydney and Ian McRobert from Parkes, NSW, were so shocked to see the beach left in such a state that they disposed of most of the rubbish and piled up the rest.
The pair have been in Mildura for the past week visiting their friend, local resident Lara Van Raay, who also cleaned up the mess.
“When we first came down here I thought it was one of the most gorgeous, relaxing, natural environments to be around,” Ms Skoufis said yesterday.
“I was shocked and disgusted when I saw it last (Thursday) night.
“I thought the people who lived here would have had more respect for their natural environment.”
Matt George, Mildura Rural City Council’s building and environmental services manager, said council “had delivered 12 extra 240 litre special events bins to Apex Park on Wednesday morning in anticipation of the high numbers expected to be there on Australia Day”.
Mr George said council’s waste management staff were “shocked” and “disappointed” when they returned yesterday morning.
“None of these bins had rubbish in them despite being in full public view next to the life saving club rooms,” Mr George said.
“Two of our officers filled six 240 litre wheelie bins and three 120 litre wheelie bins with rubbish they picked up from the beach front.”
Mayor John Arnold said people needed to have more respect and take responsibility.
“It’s disgusting that people think they can go down there, break glass and come away and expect people to clean it up,” Cr Arnold said.
“It’s not just un-Australian, there’s no community mindedness there at all.
“They don’t own it and I bet they wouldn’t like it done around their house.
“It’s the responsibility of the users to clean up after themselves.”
Ms Van Raay said the entire beach was covered in rubbish.
“It wasn’t just one group of people – it was everyone,” Ms Van Raay said. “When we started to clean up, put things in piles and out of the river, about six other people joined in.
“So in the end it was really nice to see that people were prepared to pitch in and help clean up.”
Mildura woman Bree Bailey was one of the helpers. She and her partner stopped to help while on their evening run.
“It was absolutely appalling,” Ms Bailey said.
“People left everything after themselves, broken chairs, broken shades, bottles, there was broken glass in the sand.
“There were people vomiting on the beach.
“It was foul – this is our riverfront to Mildura, this is our beach.”
Ms Bailey dubbed it as un-Australian, as did Apex Riverbeach Holiday Park management who say they have been canvassing for years for the beach to be declared a dry zone.
“We’re all fed up with it, every year we push for a dry zone but nothing happens, we’ve been pushing for that for seven years,” a female spokesperson said yesterday.
While Mildura Rural City Council has erected signs discouraging littering and has increased the number of bins provided, the woman said it was not enough.
Admittedly, the woman said a dry zone would be difficult to police, but she believes it would also help put an end to the problem. She suggested MRCC’s local laws officers patrol the beach, talk to people about littering and remove rule breakers.
Cr Arnold said he would raise the suggestion of making the area a dry zone with his fellow councillors.
However, he said it was not as simple as just enforcing the rule. He said processes would have to be adhered to – the community would have to have its say, areas comprising dry zones would have to be determined and a proposal would have to be advertised.
“I’m quite happy to raise that with councillors, but I can’t just declare it tomorrow,” Cr Arnold said.
This article appeared in Saturday’s Sunraysia Daily 28/01/2012.
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