Beach friends protecting Goolwa’s coastline

Local residents interested in protecting coastal environments have recently formed ‘Friends of Goolwa Beach’ and joined its inaugural meeting.

Goolwa residents Leon and Bea Mead created the newly formed group, after regularly picking up rubbish while walking along the beach.

“By the time we got back (recently), tipped our bags out and had a look at how much we had, it was really significant,” Bea said.

With a love for the environment and the local community, the couple thought of a way to get others on board.

“Goolwa’s home for us… Goolwa Beach is beautiful, it’s a stunning beach,” Bea said.

“We’d like to see it kept that way… we need to protect it.

“(The group is) a way to contribute something to our environment and (enhance) a sense of community.”

Leon is driven by a concern of microplastics which is small pieces of plastic debris, often litter that has broken down.

“This is what the problem is; they’re everywhere,” he said.

“You don’t see them on the beach, you think Goolwa Beach is pretty good.

“If we could educate people, talk about it, and it grows.

“People can take ownership of these things and talk to their children about it and spread the word, hopefully we can all have a brighter future.

“And also do what we’ve done in the past, which is be a community.”

He admires Aboriginal communities’ care for the environment.

“We’re on Ngarrindjeri country, they lived here for 20 thousand years,” Leon said.

“If you walk into those sand dunes and stand there, you can hear them, you can hear the laughter and the joy and singing and the dancing.

“Can you imagine the community?

“They only left cockle shells, a few stone tools and some gravesites.

“We’ve been here for 200 years and our impact is almost cataclysmic.”

The couple hopes Friends of Goolwa Beach will bring together like-minded people who care for the beach.

After growing up in Goolwa, and having fond memories of playing in the sand, searching for cockles and boogie boarding, Leon described the area as a “really nice, happy place”.

“If you come down to Goolwa and love it and enjoy it, don’t love it to death. Take your rubbish home,” he said.

For updates on future Friends of Goolwa Beach meetings, visit: (www.facebook.com/Friends-of-Goolwa-beach-102113052530944).

Frightening facts:

• Almost half the fish caught in South Australian waters contain microplastic fragments, according to research by the University of Adelaide.
• An estimated 1 million birds worldwide die from plastic.
• Reportedly, about 33 particles of microplastics per cubic metre of seawater is detected around the Australian coast.