City of Greater Geraldton, Media Release, 6 June 2023
The four-year long community led rehabilitation of ‘Rum Jungle’ is nearing completion with a final clean-up and Boxthorn Blitz workshop taking place next weekend.
To celebrate the successful initiative, members of the community who come out one last time will be treated to morning tea, giveaways and a couple of numbers from Geraldton’s Sea Shanty group aptly called Rum Jungle.
City of Greater Geraldton Mayor Shane Van Styn said the clean-ups have transformed the site.
“Four years ago, local resident Heather Beswick organised the first clean-up which saw tonnes of illegally dumped white goods, car bodies and dozens of cubic meters of Boxthorn removed from the site,” he said.
“Annual busy bees have kept the Boxthorn regrowth under control and revegetated the area.
“Thanks to the community’s hard work, native plants are thriving once again and wildlife has returned to the area.”
Event organiser Heather Beswick said the project has been an enormous success.
“This project has come from the heart and soul of local community whose care and nurturing proves that from small seeds big things certainly do grow,” she said.
“The result is clearly the combination of effective partnerships between the City, Northern Agricultural Catchments Council (NACC), Keep Australia Beautiful Council (KABC) and local business right through to grass roots community people who care and want to make a difference.
“Once this final clean-up is done everyone who has been involved in the project can proudly say they were part of restoring Rum Jungle to its former natural state.”
The final Rum Jungle Clean-up, supported by KABC, will take place from 9am to approximately 11am on Saturday 10 June 2023.
Members of the community interested in taking part should wear long sleeves and pants and bring along a hat and water bottle.
Due to road works along Chapman Road parking and registration will be held at 8 Glenfield Beach Drive.
Rum Jungle is a 1.6 hectare triangular strip of Crown Land, located on the west side of Chapman Road just south of Macedonia Drive.