Carpentaria Ghost Nets Programme Co-ordinator, Riki Gunn, was
delighted to accept delivery of three of the six second-hand 4WD
Landcruisers purchased from Stuart Menzie of Townsville 4WD
Centre.
All six vehicles were funded through a grant from the
Indigenous Land Corporation.
Many thanks to Stuart and his team for providing the vehicles at
such good prices and donating their time to fit and drive the
vehicles to Cairns and Karumba.
Each vehicle is fitted with a hoist provided by Lindsell Hoists
and a small winch provided by TJM off-road accessories.
These vehicles are designed to help Indigenous rangers in their
efforts to collect marine debris and in particular, the silent
killers which are the ghost nets.
One of these nets recently was measured at 19km — needless
to say, no vehicle could winch or hoist that monster up the beach
but many of the smaller ones need the muscle of the 4WD power to
get them clear of the shoreline.
Ghost nets are fishing nets lost accidentally or deliberately
discarded by fishing vessels.
The nets have become a growing environmental concern in north of
Australia with over 60,000 metres of nets collected over the last
20 months by the rangers from 18 indigenous communities in the Gulf
of Carpentaria & Torres Straits.
These first three vehicles, destined for Laynhapuy &
Marthakal Rangers in the NT & the Napranum Rangers near Weipa,
are on their way to Karumba from where they will go by barge to
these communities.
There are three more heading for Badu and Hammond Islands and
Injinoo via Barge from Cairns. As a spin-off from these
negotiations; Murray Lindsell Turner of Lindsell Hoists has
arranged for an art exchange between his children’s local
school in Victoria and the students of Numbulwar, NT — it is
amazing how things extend out far beyond the original
programme.
All the people associated with the Ghost Net project can be
justifiably proud of the results of their hard work and one day we
may see the Gulf free of these lethal floating environmental
disasters.
