Eaglehawk resident Norm Gray likes to spend his evenings bushwalking the Whipstick State Park behind his home, taking in the historical sights and foraging for ancient relics.
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But recently Mr Gray has been “disgusted” by what he says is the a growing problem with illegal rubbish dumping in the area.
“Mostly I just find old relics and old miners’ buttons and bits and pieces from the old gold rush days,” he said.
“But occasionally when I go into the bush proper to look for gold I come across piles of rubbish here and there and I’ve noticed it’s getting worse.”
Mr Gray said people were increasingly befouling pristine environmental locations and important historical sites, like that of the old Magetti’s Wine Hall.
“There was an open cut mine behind that and that’s just full of rubbish, it’s massive,” he said.
“There’s places out in the Whipstick where people are just dumping trailer loads of rubbish. You’ve got everything you can imagine, from kids’ prams to mattresses and cupboards and just general rubbish that should go in the council bin anyway.”
Mr Gray has even gone as far sifting through some of the junk to try and track down the culprits, but to no avail.
“They’re pretty cunning most of them, they’ll make sure there’s nothing with an invoice or address that you can track them down with,” he said.
“It’s lovely out there in autumn and it’s natural bushland being wrecked. I just think it’s awful.”
Mr Gray said complaints about excessive tip fees were no excuse for the dumping.
“I had a big trailer load of stuff and by the time I recycled stuff and went to the tip it didn’t cost all that much,” he said. “People just don’t really care, a lot of this stuff out there could be recycled. It’s just laziness, they just don’t want to pay to go to the tip.”
Mr Gray said he would like to see the council organise for volunteers to clean up the rubbish, or introduce collections for bulky items. “Why couldn’t they do a couple of general waste days like they do with green waste,” he said.