Divers get down to bottom of rubbish pile
It takes a bit to surprise Andrew Currie under water.
The professional diver has ventured into sea caves, lakes and even a disused mine shaft.
But the dive master with exploration and film company Darkwater Services did a double take when a boat battery weighing 40kg was among submerged rubbish littering the Swan River at Bicton yesterday.
Other rubbish collected included fishing line, bottles, tyres and a deckchair.
More than 34,700 WA volunteers took to the outdoors with gloves, bin bags, wetsuits and breathing apparatuses to collect an estimated 974 tonnes of rubbish as part of the 25th annual Clean Up Australia Day.
"I was surprised by how much and the variety of the stuff we found down there," Mr Currie, 28, said.
He was encouraged that the rubbish became sparse in deeper waters.
"It was only by the shoreline that it was really rotten," Mr Currie said.
The boat battery, about twice the size of a shopping basket, was retrieved from the riverbed by attaching it to an inflatable "lift bag".
Toodyay spent the weekend celebrating after taking out the Keep Australia Beautiful tidy towns award for 2015, the first WA winner since 2006 and just the fourth since the award began in 1990.
Environment Minister Albert Jacob thanked volunteers for highlighting the responsibility West Australians had for keeping the State tidy.
More than 500,000 people took part in the clean-up across the nation, collecting more than 13,500 tonnes of waste.
Clean Up Australia Day founder Ian Kiernan is convinced the country is a cleaner place.
But he continues to face a familiar foe.
"It rains cigarette butts," the 74-year-old said.
"It causes me such grief."
