The World Heritage Listed, K’gari Fraser Island, is as stunning as ever, but unfortunately, as we are rubbishing our planet, paradise island’s are paying the price. The king tides of 2022 coupled with cyclone Seth had a devastating impact on much of the coast but on Fraser Island, it brought more than just gnarly waves, it dumped tonnes and tonnes of rubbish. From microplastics to fridges, water bottles to boat’s, fishing nets to oil drums, wherever we looked, the shores of this beautiful place were littered with rubbish.
So we whipped straight into action with Ocean Crusaders and ZeroCo to get local volunteers to the island to help un-trash the largest sand island in the world.
ZeroCo have committed to buying 1 tonne of HDPE plastic from our K’gari clean-ups to make their Forever Bottles (home-cleaning and self-care products), helping the community close the loop and repurpose the plastic removed from the island.
Our emergency Beach Clean up took place on the last weekend of January 2022 and resulted in 2 tonnes of rubbish being removed from the island in just 2 days. Our next Eco Warrior Experience will be on February 24th for 4 days and 3 nights. Everyone is welcome to participate and join us in this transformational experience for people and the environment.
As part of our commitment to giving back to nature, helping to protect our oceans, flora and fauna, and of course, our beloved K’gari, K’gari Fraser Island Adventures has been hosting beach clean-ups on the island for over four years now and removed more than 10 tonnes.
Why is there so much rubbish on the beaches of K’gari?
As we learnt at school, the sand on our beaches is a result of longshore drift. These days, more than just catching sand that travels up the east coast of Australia, K’gari also catches all the rubbish that washes out from the river systems as well what is just floating around out there in our precious oceans.
“Though a lot of the rubbish that washes up is from Australian consumers, around 20% finds its way here from other counties or has been dumped by boats. K’gari is a natural catchment area because it is over 125kms long and sticks far out into the ocean”, confirms our founder and passionate environmentalist, Hana Robinson.
About 80% of all rubbish found on the island washes up from the ocean but about 20% is discarded by thoughtless visitors.
Regular beach clean-ups are necessary to maintain the rubbish washing up constantly. Annika Thomson, director of Ocean Crusaders, says “we need to sweep the beach at least once a week or have more committed locals like Hana there to do the job. We have spoke to the government about it, but looking after our natural worlds is always on the too expensive job list.”
The need for local support is urgent. The environment and all the living creatures that depend on it can’t continue to wait for us to clean up our act. If you would like to support our ongoing efforts in the war against waste on K’gari – sponsorship sign-ups for the Community Beach Clean-Ups on K’gari are open!
How do K’gari Fraser Island Adventures’ clean ups work?
Everyone is welcome, from experts and people really committed to the environment, to curious locals or internationals that want to participate during their visit to the Fraser Coast spectacular region.
In a nutshell, volunteers take long walks along the beach collecting plastic, learn about the importance of the island’s biodiversity and enjoy amazing conversations with like-minded people.
K’gari’s Community Beach Clean-Ups are all about living by the first law that K’gari Traditional Owners have instilled through sharing their respectful culture with Hana and Mark (owners and founders of K’gari Fraser Island Adventures formerly Drop Bear Adventures). What is good for the land must come first and they could not agree more. They are honored to work with the Butchulla community in bringing people to the country to help clean up the beach and help further their respect for land and culture.
Of course, there is always time to explore K’gari and some of its best spots too and we are very passionate about making this a fun and rewarding weekend. Meals, transport and beachfront accommodation is all included.
There are plenty of ways to help keep these amazing events happening so let’s do this together and keep paradise pristine!
BOOK AN ECO WARRIOR EXPERIENCE ON FRASER ISLAND