Pitt Town local Gordon Douglas was on the phone with me, as he often is. “Nathan, have you seen the state of Bardenarang Creek since the floods? It’s terrible!”
That afternoon I went to the famous Friendship Bridge on Pitt Town Bottoms Road to see for myself, and saw the reason for his concern.Repeated floods have left the creek in a very sorry state, with tattered plastic sheets from local farms spectrally draped in all the trees and choking the waterway.
The site has significant historic importance too. This was the site of the very first meeting between europeans and the Darug Aborigines in 1791. When I helped locals pull tonnes of rubbish out of that creek at a Clean Up Australia event a few years ago, I saw local pride in caring for our environment. But this is beyond the ability for volunteer groups to remedy due to the volume of debris and safety concerns.
I’ve raised this with Council staff to see whether creek-cleanups like this can be scheduled into our ongoing flood recovery works.
JUNE 2022 UPDATE
There has been a wonderful response to this issue, with the community rallying to clean up the creek. The Pitt Town Progress Association, Council and volunteer relief organisation Disaster Relief Australia.
Read about it here and see the follow-up video below: