4WD REPORT: Clubs get in and clean up

FRASER Island, the largest sand island in the world, is a magnet for four-wheel-drivers far and wide.

CROSSING OVER: Club member Deb Colbourne crossing Eli Creek.

FRASER Island, the largest sand island in the world, is a magnet for four-wheel-drivers far and wide.

Unfortunately with such popularity comes side effects, one of which is the amount of rubbish left behind.

Because of the island's location a large amount of rubbish is also washed up onto the 125km of open beach from the southbound current down the Great Barrier Reef, carrying waste from Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and beyond.

This year marks the 18th annual clean-up with 375 four-wheel-drive club vehicles from around Queensland in attendance. It was once again organised by Four Wheel Drive Queensland in conjunction with the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service.

A welcoming ceremony by the Butchulla people, the traditional owners of k'Gari (Fraser Island), at the Yidney Rocks Beachfront Units started the activities.

A first for the event was to include the organisation Ocean Crusaders who painstakingly weighed and sorted the rubbish that was collected.

TONNES OF IT: Bags ready for sorting by Ocean Crusaders

A final wrap-up saw almost seven tonnes of debris collected.

In that the top contenders were more than 43,000 plastic lids, 6400 plastic bottles, 9600 pieces of foam, 1700 glow sticks and 1600 thongs.

The most satisfying statistic was the removal of more than 131,000 pieces of hard plastic that break up and become dangerous to wildlife.

Anything that could be recycled was sorted and taken off the island.

ISLAND CLEAN-UP: Part of the rubbish haul.

Along with rubbish, clubs assisted in the removal of Easter cassia at an outbreak near Happy Valley. This weed grows as a shrub up to about 5m tall.

Around Easter the weed produces masses of bright yellow flowers that we could use to easily identify what we had to contend with.

Working side by side with the rangers, we fought our way through the scrub to pull out the smaller plants or cut the bigger shrubs as close to ground level as possible and spray the stump with herbicide.

Lantana was also targeted because the invasive weed is starting to become more prevalent on the island.

HOW-TO: The weeding group gets instructions.

The opportunity to explore the World Heritage-listed site was available with drives to the various tourist hot spots such as Lake McKenzie, Kingfisher Bay, Eli Creek and the Maheno shipwreck, to name a few.

Bad weather over the past couple of months has taken its toll on the exposed beaches of the island, causing large sections of coffee rock - sand compacted and cemented together by organic particles - to become exposed along the beach, making progress slow.

To reward us for our efforts, a barbecue and entertainment had been organised for the final night of the weekend at the Eurong Resort for upwards of 800 participants who had registered for the event.

Lucky door prizes and raffles were drawn and it was good to see most clubs represented won a prize that had been donated by the many event sponsors.

To find out more about the Bundaberg Four Wheel Drive Club and activities we have on, email [e-mail], visit www.bundaberg4wdclub.com or catch us on Facebook or Instagram.

LOADS OF WORKERS: Some of the 375 vehicles in attendance.