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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-03-21 Daily Xml
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Morphett Electorate

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (15:17): I take this opportunity in parliament to speak about the beautiful stretch of beach along Glenelg North, the nearby Patawalonga, and in particular the wonderful Glenelg North community. Both the beach and the lake play a significant role in many people's active lifestyles, either walking, running, or jogging, as well as just taking time to enjoy the scenic views along the Patawalonga.

The Patawalonga Lake is at the end of the Sturt Creek, which starts off in the Hills and eventually makes its way through to Glenelg. The water is litter free where the Sturt Creek starts, but as you start going through housing, all along the way to Glenelg, more and more litter and waste appears in the creek that has been washed into it by stormwater drains.

Where the Sturt Creek ends at the northern end of the Pat, there is a floating barrier which tries to capture as much of this waste, and a lot of that is plastic. The Leader of the Opposition, when he was the environment minister in the former Liberal government, was part of the first government in Australia to ban single-use plastics, to stop plastic entering the waste streams in the first place.

However, when there are big rains, unfortunately some of the waste does find its way into the Pat and then eventually into the ocean where it can wash up on the beaches in Glenelg, Glenelg South and also Glenelg North. Of course, my family and I also live near the beach in Glenelg South and we volunteer at the Glenelg Surf Life Saving Club, so we understand the importance of protecting our pristine coastline and keeping our beaches beautiful.

Since being elected in 2018, I have held annual Clean Up Australia Day events at the beach in Somerton Park, Glenelg South and also Glenelg. This year, on a beautiful, sunny day on Sunday 3 March, I held a Clean Up Australia Day event at Glenelg North. Thank you to my team of Simone, Hugh and Rubie, who helped me set up a marquee at Tarniwarra Reserve on the foreshore at Glenelg North where community members could come along and collect a rubbish bag and some gloves and then go off and clean up any litter they could find.

Most of the volunteers who came along with locals knew about the clean-up event, but with the coast park going past the marquee it was fantastic to find a number of people from outside Glenelg North going for a walk and being inspired to take a bag with them and clean up. Additionally, it was fantastic to have such a large number of Young Liberals come out, and being so energetic they were able to cover so much of the local area.

The clean-up volunteers went off in all directions. Some went along the beach all the way up to the walkway to West Beach, combing both the shoreline and also the rock wall, where a lot of the litter gets washed into. Others took the higher ground and went along the coast park that runs along the esplanade. A number walked across to the banks of the Pat and cleaned up on the banks and also in the grass areas that line the Pat.

I spread my effort first at Tarniwarra Reserve, then along a stretch of the beach before heading along King Street to meet up with the volunteers cleaning up at the Pat. While at first glance these areas looked clean, it was surprising how many small pieces of litter were lying around. Some of it was a bit more obvious. Along King Street I picked up someone's leftovers from a Maccas run the night before that unbelievably had just been dropped on the ground—the paper bag, serviettes, and even the receipt.

Along the Pat there was a distinct line in the grass of predominantly small plastics that had been deposited at the high water line of a past storm. Overall, we were able to pick up about 10 bags of rubbish, leaving both the Glenelg North beach and the Patawalonga cleaner than when we started. The volunteers included Susan and Peter Ali, Marianne and Robert Harding, Graeme and Tania Poole, Janet Hillgrove, Laura and Richard Stranger and Irina Glass. I give a special mention to Brooke Birkby and her fantastic children Olive, Darcy and Mabel—and of course all the Young Liberals who came out in force.

Thank you to everyone who came along to clean up Glenelg North on Clean Up Australia Day and for making a difference locally by taking practical action for our community.

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