Clean Up Australia Day 2025 our BIGGEST EVER Clean Up!

Over 800,000 volunteers headed out to Clean Up their local communities for Clean Up Australia Day 2025.

Further out in Sydney, in Parramatta, the Clean Up event held at George Kendall Riverside Park on the Parramatta River and run by Councillor and ParraParents founder Kellie Darley, once again hauled big amounts of litter in a regular event which has been operating since May 2020.

“George Kendall Riverside Park would have to be the most litter polluted spot that's easily accessible along Parramatta River we've found.... and trust us, we've gone looking!” Kellie said.

Numerous groups were also spotted picking up rubbish in the many shady nooks and crannies of Parramatta Park. Further afield, in Canberra, ACT, a dedicated group of volunteers led by 22-year veteran coordinator Terry de Luca and joined by Dr Andrew Leigh MP, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, collaborated to Clean Up Hacket – making it the pride of the Inner North in Canberra.

In Melbourne, approximately 70 community and business volunteers united with Decathlon and Kayak Melbourne to take care of the beloved Yarra River. With 40 volunteers on kayaks, and others walking, an incredible volume of litter was removed from the banks of the Yarra. 

Outside of Melbourne, in Victoria, at Barwon Heads Bluff, 25 volunteers filled an impressive 21 bags containing 3620 pieces of litter including 1500+ pieces of plastic, 625 cigarette butts, 200 wipes or tissues, 130 bottles, 150 aluminium cans plus many other miscellaneous items including a travel mug, balls, hats and vapes. Kudos to the incredible volunteer who counted this out.

Happily, the Barwon Heads Scouts group who participated in the Clean Up were able to cash in three bags of 10 cent recyclables to their local Container Deposit Scheme. We know that there were Scouts and Girl Guides out in droves, all over the country, including in Queanbeyan, ACT where the local Girl Guides picked up a guitar! – amongst a lot of other waste. 

In South Australia, an incredible dive Clean Up went ahead with members of the Sea Wolves Dive Club homing in on litter on the Carrickalinga Reef, south of Adelaide. Participants were rewarded with a deserving sausage sizzle after the dive. In Tasmania, the Rokeby Hills Community Landcare Group cleared litter over both Saturday AND Sunday. This outstanding effort took place on a reserve in Rokeby where the group are also undertaking a weed removal project.

Community ally OzFish had an incredible 26 events running across their nationwide Chapters, and even ran their own internal “funniest find competition” – with the Busselton Jetty underwater dive site in Western Australia managing to find a funny pair of jocks for the second year running. In Alice Springs, Northern Territory a Larrapinta Clean Up site boasted red soils as volunteers headed out early alongside Alice Springs Town Council to tackle local rubbish before the heat.

And in Cairns, Queensland the annual Big Butt Hunt saw more than 14,200 cigarette butts picked up from city streets. The third annual Big Butt Hunt – hosted by No More Butts, Cairns Regional Council and Clean Up Australia – saw 41 volunteers search CBD streets for cigarette butts between Cairns Central and Cairns Esplanade. It’s always eye-opening to note the significant presence of plastic cigarette butts in the environment.

Another Queensland Clean Up in Brisbane saw EcoMarines student environment ambassadors and Urban Utilities join forces with Brisbane City Council in a fun event at Kangaroo Point.

To celebrate our 35th anniversary, volunteers were treated to delicious cakes at three team events across the country – and those cakes looked delightful, complete with Clean Up gloves and decorated icing bins! A shout-out also to Cleanaway who assisted by providing skip bins for key sites. Not to mention the always incredible Windgap Foundation team who packed 15,000 Clean Up kits!

Of course, there are simply too many amazing events to mention, with Clean Ups taking place across the entirety of the country, from the outback to the mountains, country towns, coasts and city streets – no place was overlooked. This year was also our BIGGEST EVER Schools Clean Up Day event, with record numbers of participating schools taking part. Businesses also came out in force for Business Clean Up Day and throughout the National Week of Action.

All in all, we want to say: THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT! Once again, we are overwhelmed by the strength of the community, coming together to Clean Up this vast country. Thank you! Our organisation belongs to you, the volunteers who continue to pull on their gloves, pick up litter and spread the love for our environment.

Let’s build on that fabulous momentum and carry it on into a year of practical action of eliminating litter and ending waste.