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The Cleanup 🐚

@teamcleantas

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The South West Marine Debris Cleanup 🌊🐚 An epic 100% volunteer expedition that's been cleaning up lutruwita/Tassie's wildest beaches since 1999⚡️💙

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Last weekend we put on a little festival down in Southport as a fundraiser for @teamcleantas 💙🌊

Altogether we raised just over $6,000 for the Cleanup which will go a long way in fuel for our boats and bellies while we pick up marine debris from the stunning beaches of the South West coast.

A huge thank you to everyone who performed, volunteered, donated, bought tickets, gave kind words of support and advice, and to all of the people who were on our waitlist - we promise we'll make it bigger next time! It is such a pleasure to put on events like this and they simply would not be possible without the support of all of you.

An especially massive thank you to @ulski for taking these sweet pics and for all you do for the Cleanup. Also to all of the beautiful musicians who volunteered to play: @willi.g__ @claudie.joy @jethropickett @cathy.diver @davies_jack_ @miahaplin_music @connie.genaris @thomasskalicky and to @rastingodejohann and @stortvnuderplunt who did the most incredible job on sound AND supplied all of the gear 💛

We're going to take a little bit of a break but we're so excited to do it all again soon 🌿✨ by @teamcleantas

Merch tent and weaving area ready to go! Sounds of the Southwest almost ready to kick off… by @teamcleantas

Sounds for the South West has sold out! Thank you to everyone who bought tickets, we'll see you at Southport on February 28th 💙🐬

We're still waiting on council approval for camping but we'll be in touch with ticket holders as soon as we know!

Message us if you'd like to join the waitlist and we'll get hold of you if any tickets come up ✨🌿 by @teamcleantas

We're putting on a day festival in Southport on February 28th to raise funds for next year's Cleanup!

Unfortunately we won't be going out on a big expedition in 2026 but we're taking this break as an opportunity to put on a big ol' party to celebrate our beautiful community, all our years of hard work, and to prepare for Cleanups to come!

Follow the link in our bio for tickets and more information

Can't wait to see you there 💙🐬 by @teamcleantas

Happy World Oceans Day. We exist to remove marine debris from the most exquisite of coastlines in lutruwita. 25 years and counting. by @teamcleantas

Here’s a close up look at some of the rubbish we collected from Noyhener Beach in South West Tasmania last week
Thanks @masaakisushi for the footage! by @teamcleantas

Wooohooo! Big article about the cleanup in the Sunday paper 🎉

Thank you for sharing our message far and wide, Bridget Clarke and @themercury news team 💛 by @teamcleantas

Day 8: The Final Countdown

The team awoke in New Harbour feeling sore but grateful for an early night after an enormous day on Stephens and Noyhener beaches. The count began after a slow wakeup and nourishing breakfast; sorting through yesterday's haul brought up many vivid stories of the day's finds and adventures. We reminisced as we counted and sorted through debris from the two different beaches, ending with a total of 12,149 pieces for the day, with 7,446 from Stephens, and 4,703 from Noyhener.

This gave us a grand total of 50,838 pieces for the trip - an absolutely massive effort for our beach crew of just 11 people over 6 days.

After completing the count, Rumours steamed out to Maatsuyker Island for Bucky's grand ocean tour including bird watching, a visit to a seal colony, and a bbq lunch on deck. While Rumours went wide, Velocity hugged the coast looking for a wave - unfortunately the search for surf was unsuccessful but the trip provided Velocity's crew with majestic views of the geologically diverse South Coast, as well as a visit from an enormous pod of dolphins.

The two boats reconvened in Recherche Bay for the last raft up of the trip. For our final meal onboard we enjoyed a feast of stripey trumpeter three ways; ceviche, bbq'd and deep fried. After looking through photos of trips long past with a fantastic slideshow from Matt, we've spent the evening swapping stories and celebrating another great year of The Cleanup.

This trip leaves us with an all-time total of over 895,684 pieces of marine debris removed from Tasmania's South West Coast.

An enormous thanks to our incredible supporters and major sponsors Patagonia, Intuit technologies, Wildcare, Pennicott Wilderness Journeys and TSIC. Also for the generous donations from local businesses of their delicious food and drinks to keep us fueled up for the trip: Gillespie's ginger beer, MOO brew beers, Pigeon Whole bakery bread, the Splendid Gin spritzes, Masaaki's sushi, Willie Smith's ciders, and Huon Valley Seafood keeping it all cold with their sea ice! And finally to our wonderful skippers Adam and Dave, without whom this trip would not be possible. by @teamcleantas

Day 7: Net Wars

Today was a big day; its 10:15pm and the restaurant at the end of the world has just served up a very late okonomiyaki dinner. Today started with a brisk 45 minute walk from Spain Bay over the unusually dry track to Stephens Beach. The western end of Stephens was sheltered and yielded very little in the way of rubbish. Around halfway down the beach the usual microplastics and small rope pieces started appearing. After 3 hours on Stephens, the team embarked on a 20 minute walk through the mobile dune fields. Emerging through the boobyalla scrub, we arrived at Noyhener beach at 3pm for a 4 hour power cleaning session. We hadn't cleaned Noyhener for a number of years, and were greeted by multiple enormous trawlnets and countless microplastics. There was also a large stash of marine debris at the campsite, thanks to bushwalkers doing their bit while hiking the South West Circuit.

Volume wise, this was the biggest haul of the trip. Well over 500 kgs of trawl net were removed from this one beach, with multiple long trolley hauls in the pouring rain. This made for an extreme dinghy extraction in the large South Westerly swell - thanks to Dave's amazing skills on the tiller, everyone got home safely and (relatively) dry.

After 9 hours on land, the tired and bedraggled crew made their way East; rounding Southwest Cape escorted by many thousands of shearwaters and albatross. We left the count for the next day, to be completed after a good night's rest in the calm sanctuary of New Harbour.

P.s. The smurfette collected by Alby won the immunity item for the day!

First two photos by the wonderful @ulski by @teamcleantas

Cruising home along the South Coast with 50,838 pieces of marine debris in tow! by @teamcleantas

Day 6: A New Rope
The morning was wet and wild when we awoke in Bramble Cove in Port Davey. The westerly winds were blowing and the swell was forecast for 5 metres, so we had limited options for safe landings for beaches to clean.

The surfers amongst us were keen for a wave. It was a wild crossing past the Breaksea islands to Earl Point, where there were some gentle and fun waves braking. The surfers bravely faced the squally weather and spent some fun hours surfing landlocked in the wilderness.

The rest of the crew had a wonderful adventure up the Davey River. This dark, tannin stained river was explored in the trusty tinny named “420 Buster”, navigating sandbars and sunken old Huon pines. The river runs through a beautiful quartzite gorge, which was quite simply, gorgeous.

We travelled as far as we could up the river until we hit rapids, and had a delightful picnic on the bank, feeling very grateful for being in such a wild and removed place.

The afternoon consisted of a clean up of the beaches along the north side of Bond Bay, and we are happy to report that there was very little rubbish, with only 36 pieces of rubbish collected by our team.

The remainder of the day was filled with swims, basket weaving and naps. The wild weather abated to reward us with a glorious sunset as we filled our bellies with some hearty dinner
- Jen by @teamcleantas

Day 5: The Nurdle Strikes Back
The team had a later start this morning with the Velocity crew having a big crayfish fry up for breakfast courtesy of our king of crays Masaaki, while the Rumours crew warded off scurvy with Jay making a big and very delicious fruit salad. After breakfast we had an exciting steam over to Bramble Cove, inside Port Davey, with some waves breaking over the beam. After waiting for the morning showers to stop we headed ashore and immediately found ourselves deep in microplastic land.

The team spent several hours all together sifting through the sticks and stones unearthing endless small plastic pieces and nurdles. Half the team then continued further around the rocky shoreline finding a variety of big plastics including 106 plastic bottles, 158 bottle caps and one very large piece of green striped salmon farm plastic piping. This was nothing, however, compared to the small stuff with 2,013 small rope pieces and 4,717 plastic pieces. Eventually the team made it round to a beach for pick up.

Back on Rumours the crafter-noon was in full swing with our basket making queen, Lee, teaching us basket making from the colourful ropes we’ve picked up. Later in the afternoon the two boats rafted up behind Turnbull Island and it was time for the count. Dinner was a Captain Bucky and Masaaki special with steak, barbecued tuna, veggies and chips!

The final number for the day was 8,804

Caitlin by @teamcleantas