Jenny Duggan’s decade-long mission to keep Territory town litter-free

FOR 10 years, Jenny Duggan has been cleaning up Katherine - a town she loves.

Katherine's very own 'Rubbish Warrior' Jenny Duggan. Jenny goes on regular walks to pick

JUST metres onto the lush grass of Katherine’s Ryan Park — one of the first landmarks visitors travelling south from Darwin will see— it’s disturbingly clear just what Jenny Duggan and her town are facing.

“Look at that,” she says. “I could tell you what it is without even turning it over- Poker Face, 2012 Chardonnay.”

She’s right.

A few more steps towards the rail bridge and she stops and points ahead.

“See? This is what we’re up against. You can’t ride your bike here.”

The path and bridge are littered with shards of glass, the remnants of long-grassers’ cheap nights, and days, out.

A bottle even smashes on the path during the NT News interview.

The long-grassers and Ms Duggan are friendly. They know each other well.

To them, she is the ‘The River Lady’.

Ms Duggan, 59, spends about an hour each morning walking at times a 5km round trip to clean up the bottles.

She’s been doing it for 10 years, but she says the litter problem is only getting worse.

“It’s glass now- smashed glass- that’s the problem,” she says.

“When we started we’d pick up long necks and they would never smash. It’s wine now, because it’s cheap.

“It’s $7 a bottle and there’s all those promotions to get it cheaper.”

On an average day she says she’ll pick the equivalent of 25 bottles.

She’ll also find the remnants of containers used for sniffing petrol.

Asked why she does it, her answer is simple

“You do it for the environment,” she says. “And Katherine’s been pretty good to us.”