Pictured above is the tractor and beach cleaning unit used by the Onkaparinga Council to remove rubbish from the beach.

In the good old days (prior to 1999) along the beach at the base of the first line of dunes were forty four gallon drums on frames. These were emptied by a council crew with a front end loader and the rubbish carted back to a truck in the car park. The disadvantage of these bins was that they were labour intensive to empty, had no lids allowing flies and other vermin to enter and were liable to be tipped over by the weather or hooligans. These bins were supplemented by the traditional square lidded plastic bins secured by a metal frame which were emptied by the regular refuse collection vehicles. This meant of course they were located above the beach adjacent to the road way. The beach is now swept of rubbish on a regular basis by the equipment pictured above. I guess the theory being that the type of person who is going to leave rubbish on the beach would not care if they had to carry it up the steps to a bin or walk 50 to 100 hundred meters along the beach to bin it.

Hopefully the sweeper is capable of picking up some of the real nasties such as syringes that are infrequent visitors to our beaches. It does appear to work best on dry sand so that in periods of high tides the area of the beach covered is quite small. It also leaves it's obvious imprint on the beach...but on balance appears to be a good idea.

Footnote. The beach sweeping is no longer practised as it was felt it was damaging to the environment.

The beach after sweeping

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