The Great Outback Clean Up

Outback Australia will be an additional focus for Clean Up Australia's activities next year.

As part of the 2006 Year of the Outback, Clean Up Australia will collaborate with HEMA Maps and the Australian Outback Development Consortium (AODC) to organise a fundraising journey that will see 380 four-wheel drive vehicles travel a combined distance of 70,000 km.

The 4WD vehicles will depart from capital cities around Australia and travel on 19 selected tracks to Alice Springs, collecting rubbish from campsites and roadsides along the way.

The problem of litter in the landscape is not only an aesthetic one. Our unique Australian wildlife is at risk of choking on plastic, being strangled by plastic rings from bottle tops and being killed when it investigates and gets stuck in all kinds of rubbish.

Chairman and Founder of Clean Up Australia, Ian Kiernan AO, said, "On Clean Up Australia Day last year 58% of our participants were from rural Australia. They helped remove nearly 8000 tonnes of rubbish nationwide, 31% of which came from roadsides."

While Clean Up works with rural, regional and remote communities every year to collect litter, he said the national Great Outback Clean Up would take the Clean Up philosophy into even more remote areas.

A minimum of 20 vehicles will be allocated per track and participants will buy their spot via an online auction, with the proceeds donated to Clean Up Australia, the Royal Flying Doctor Service and AODC.

For more information see www.outbackinfront.com