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Friday, March 1, 2019

The First Straw


Australia Road writer’s blog


about old buildings, natural wonders, and some historical stories I can’t let go, like a dog with a bone. 


The First Straw


I walk because my life depends on it. 
I want what all walkers want. Solid streets and wide paths to plant my feet, greenery with birds and small animals, enchanting houses and colourful structures.

Previously I walked around Sydney’s East but lately I’ve been exploring the Inner West. In tree-lined cool enclaves and ancient lanes squeezed with giddy old factories and precarious terrace houses, murals catch the eye and something (the historic atmosphere, a child, or a singing magpie) is bound to touch the heart. 

Walking this morning I carried a re-usable shopping bag for the errands I had planned. And so, when I saw some stray garbage - a can here, bottle there - I started thinking, well, I could pick it up. But I really don’t want to.

In Tamarama Gully and the eastern suburbs, I used to pick up a lot of rubbish, on Clean Up Australia Day or just random Sundays. But in places like Leichhardt and Newtown, I’ve been more inclined to turn a blind eye. Strolling in a daydream this morning, I entered the grassy area alongside Whites Creek – and there I saw it: the red-striped plastic straw. 

FINE. If that’s the kind of thing that’s going to be tossed out on the creek side, I can’t ignore it.

 Photo by Mohamed Maail, on Unsplash.com

Whites Creek* has a small ‘wetland’ pocket with charming footlong turtles (30 centimetres) who rise to the surface and peer at you through the water weeds if you stand still and watch. I was planning to check them later, hoping to glimpse a foot or an edge of shell. 
Straws have been targeted lately as high priority trash. Whites Creek’s cement-lined waterway leads straight to Sydney Harbour, and from there to the ocean.

Unfolding my bag, I drop the straw in. Now I can’t relax but must stop every metre or so; finding plastic water-bottles, coffee cup lids, bottle caps, and water-bottle LABELS that have escaped their bottles. Ziploc bags, chocolate wrappers, a toothbrush, popped balloon tied to a ribbon, and Styrofoam pieces complete the stash.

I only pick up plastic – that idea started last year during a litter removal jag in Centennial Park. Glass bottles – meh. Metal cans or bottle tops – nah. These items might pose hazards, but are more ‘natural’, and can break down; they won’t join the great Pacific garbage patch one day. And they probably won’t get stuck in a sea animal’s stomach or nasal passage, or wind around its limbs. Besides, if I was going to pick up everything, I’d have to push a trolley. 



At the Great Barrier Reef two years ago, a huge sea turtle ate a wobbly white-ish jellyfish before my eyes. So I easily believe plastic looks like their food – clear or white, and flexible. The veterinarian on Better Homes and Gardens tv show,  Dr Harry Cooper, said in February that it's possible "in 40 years time there may be no sea turtles around". This is the year of the pig on the Asian calendar, but for me it feels like Year of the Turtle.

Passing the wetland later I notice part of the water surface is clear – it’s been very clogged recently – and a longneck turtle comes up to me. Its back and legs and neck are fully visible for the first time. One of its buddies swims close too - it has three normal legs and one smaller, damaged. If I can catch some straws and plastic bits before they hurt any water friends, I’ll do it. 
* Whites Creek is how it is written, even if you just want to put an apostrophe in there.

[FYI this post is not sanctioned by nor related to them]

8 comments:

  1. Well done - I love the post and look forward to reading more. Great topic and very important in our world today

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  2. Thank you Robin. I enjoyed reading your blog, and am glad to know a fellow litter-picker-upper. Lets hope a day comes when we're out of a job. Looking forward to the next blog.

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  3. Well done. Loved it. Keep it up, Lilian.

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  4. This is great! I like how it takes me on a journey with you. And it's timely, with clean up Australia day

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    1. Invaluable help from your great course in blogging... and your blog (noodlies.com) posts on getting started were really helpful too.

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