Australia has one of the best natural landscapes in the world. With our pristine beaches, ancient forests and flourishing marine life, we have some of the most unique flora and fauna in the world. But the rubbish we create through mass consumption is choking our streets, beaches, parks, bushland and waterways. We are all part of the problem – but on Thursday 8 March 2018 the Intermediate VCAL class became part of the solution by participating in a Clean Up Australia Day Youth Event.

Our Intermediate VCAL class headed down to Mordialloc Pier bright and early with the sun shining strongly in a perfectly clear blue sky and after a quick safety briefing, they got stuck into cleaning up the rubbish wedged between the rocks on Mordialloc Pier. The students worked hard, stopping only for a quick but refreshing recess of fresh fruit, doughnuts and fruit boxes. As the students continued to clean up the pier, the large variety of discarded items they found prompted much discussion about how we use our resources and how we could protect our most precious resource of all, our planet.

After our very successful Clean Up Australia Day Youth Event, the students carted the rubbish back to the College to either dispose of it correctly or recycle it in the College’s recycle collection bins. Some students went on to pledge they would make a real effort to use less plastic in their day to day lives and the students wrote some excellent and very convincing persuasive pieces about banning single use plastic bags in Victoria.