Group battles to tidy up city Fundraising appeal for surveillance
FED-UP Townsville environmentalists are acting as an extra set of eyes and ears for the Townsville City Council.
Rasmussen local Dave Dudley’s crusade to curb illegal dumping motivated him to start the Facebook group Townsville Illegal Dumping Yobo’s Cleanups (TIDY).
The group of more than 900 members has collectively removed 15 tonnes of dumped rubbish from around Townsville in the past six months.
Mr Dudley said the top items dumped were trade waste, white goods, furniture, bedding and clothing.
TIDY has started a GoFundme page hoping to raise $5000 to purchase extra mobile infra-red, wireless security cameras to place at notorious Townsville dumping locations.
The additional reinforcement will help the group monitor a larger area to relay information back to the Townsville City Council.
Mr Dudley said the group was ramping up its efforts to abolish illegal dumping with the extra surveillance equipment.
“We want to get more cameras out there into spots that we are targeting to catch people and to deter people because there is absolutely zero excuse to dump in the bush,” he said.
“Any information we find we will forward on to the council and then it is up to them what they want to do.”
Since September 2019, the
Townsville City Council has issued 26 fines to people caught illegally dumping worth almost $50,000.
Mr Dudley said TIDY had placed CCTV camera warning signs around Townsville and was holding true to its word by installing additional thermal imaging.
“The signs we have put up, we will put up at known hot spots but they (cameras) could be anywhere; we don’t tell people directly that there is a camera,” he said.
“Some of the old signs that you see on gate posts, a lot of the cameras are not in use.”
A spokesman from the Townsville City Council said all leads were appreciated.
“Council welcomes information from the public, including recorded vision or photographs,” he said. “Such intelligence can be used to identify those individuals engaged in illegal dumping.”
Donations can be made to TIDY at gofundme.com/f/ townsville- illegal- dumpingyobo039s-cleanups-tidy.