Detail on item found washed up on Aussie beach leads to 11,000km mystery: 'It didn't exist'
Colleen Hughson, who refers to herself as a serial beachcomber, was strolling with a 'rookie' on a beach near Codrington, about four hours southwest of Melbourne, when a brown crate sitting on top of the sand caught her eye — and jogged her memory.
After giving it a quick wipe with her hand, the Victorian saw the brand 'Albany Bakery' etched on the side of the plastic and assumed it had floated over from the popular Western Australian tourist town bearing the same name.
However, it didn't take her long to remember she had discovered the exact same crate broken in pieces on a separate beach three years ago.
'I found a bread crate like that on another beach, and I just assumed it was from Albany,' she told Yahoo News on Friday. Soon after, while holidaying in the area, she decided to track down the local business and let them know.
'It didn't exist,' she said. Following some lengthy online digging, Colleen learned the item actually originated from Cape Town, South Africa. 'The exact crate, exact branding and everything,' she explained.
Did the crates travel 11,000km to Australia?
While many may assume the crates somehow floated 5,907 nautical miles (10,939km) across the ocean to land on Australia's south coast, it is much more likely the items 'fell off a ship', Colleen said. The second crate looked almost 'brand new', backing up her belief it didn't spend much time in the water.
'We actually do get a lot of international shipping rubbish,' the volunteer, who founded Beach Patrol's regional offshoot in Warrnambool in 2017, said. She explained that the majority of the rubbish the volunteer group finds in the area near Port of Portland is from 'ocean activities' — fishing and shipping debris.
Sometimes they even find large garbage bags filled with items and chemical drums with liquid still inside.
Concerned by the increase in international shipping debris being collected, Beach Patrol launched a citizen science project called Bottles Overboard about five years ago.
'80 per cent of the branded rubbish — not just drink bottles but toilet cleaners, detergent bottles, and food packaging — is foreign labels, not sold in Australia. So that's on our coastline,' Colleen told Yahoo, noting the majority of bottles seem to come from China.
And it's not just our shores — beach cleaners around the world are reporting similar items, she added.
Speaking to the ABC about the issue in 2023, Southern Cross University marine ecologist Stephen Smith said there has been a noticeable increase in water bottles from overseas being found on beaches since Covid.
🏝️ Sad encounter on empty Aussie beach highlights growing threat
💦 Disturbing find exposes problem taking over Aussie waterways
🚙 Discovery under roadside sign exposes 'frightening' reality of Aussie crisis
Beachcomber says more needs to be done to curb coastal litter
A study published by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in 2022 revealed that local efforts such as organised beach clean-ups have helped reduce Australia's coastal litter by almost 30 per cent in recent years, but Colleen says more needs to be done.
The Victorian believes some ships are dumping items in order to avoid paying a hefty rubbish fee once they pull into a port, and lowering that figure could help curb the issue. 'The cost of cleaning that up, and the damage that's going to do now and into the future, that is such a bigger cost than allowing [ships] to bring their rubbish in and get it disposed of properly,' she said.
Unlike locals who illegally dump their rubbish on roadsides, there's 'no risk' in the ocean, Colleen added. 'No one can see what you're doing. No one's policing what they're doing,' she said, calling for more help from the Australian Government.
'It's just completely left up to volunteers picking it up, trying to work out where it comes from, trying to stop it at the source — I would love to see a government department or agency with the sole purpose of trying to reduce plastic in the ocean.'
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