Who does what around here?

I received a response from NSW Maritime last week regarding a broken rubbish trap in Rodd Point. It turns out the trap is owned by Sydney Water, even though NSW Maritime removes the rubbish. Ah, what a tangled web our government departments weave.

The good news is that next time the trap fails, I know who to report it to - NSW Maritime were kind enough to give me the direct phone number and email address of the person responsible at Sydney Water. I suppose they are sick of me writing to the Chief Executive, and want me to annoy someone else. And I can do it for free - sending an email beats paying for a letter and stamp.

How fifty cents can save the world

Maybe that's just a slight exaggeration. But spending fifty cents on a stamp has helped to keep Sydney harbour clean.

Maritime NSW has installed rubbish traps on a number of canals that drain into the harbour. From time to time - either due to foul weather or foul play - the traps come adrift from their moorings. When that happens, rubbish flows straight into the harbour.

The first photo was taken on 11 October, showing the trap wide open. It had been like this since at least 29 September, when I first noticed it. I wasn't organised enough to report it straight away, although this just goes to show how many other users of the Bay Run have been paying attention to the rubbish traps (or noticing and not caring) - none!

I wrote and posted a very simple letter to NSW Maritime on 11 Oct:

Mr Steve Dunn

Chief Executive

NSW Maritime
James Craig Road

Rozelle NSW 2039

11 October 2010

Dear Mr Dunn

Reporting of broken rubbish trap on Iron Cove Creek, Rodd Point

I wrote to you in July 2010 regarding the rubbish trap on Iron Cove Creek having come adrift.

It was fixed shortly afterwards, but it has since become adrift again.

Yours sincerely

On 14 October, the trap was fixed. Last time I wrote to NSW Maritime about this problem, they fixed the trap within a day. NSW Maritime is a fairly small organisation, so the CEO doesn't need to go through a lot of management layers to get the problem fixed.

When I went past tonight, it was good to see that the trap had already collected a lot of rubbish - not that it's a good thing that a lot of rubbish is drifting down this canal, but it's good to see that at least the trap is grabbing it before it ends up in the harbour.

How Green is the electorate really?

Balmain is supposed to be one of the greenest areas in Australia. Leichhardt Council is dominated by Greens. The state seat may go Green at the next election.

The Bay Run sits right in the middle of this Green Utopia. If Greens like to exercise like everyone else, 10% of the people who walk or run around the Bay must vote Green.

All of them walk past this rubbish trap when doing a lap of The Bay. This rubbish trap keeps an enormous amount of litter out of the harbour. It is a Very Good Thing. However, it's completel useless when it comes adrift from its moorings - like it has in this photo.

Whenever this trap comes adrift, I report it to Maritime NSW. They usually come out and fix it pretty quickly. Although this area is awash with Greens, how come none of them ever, ever bother to report it? Why are they happy to walk past it, watching rubbish drift into the harbour, without feeling the urge to do something about it?

Greens - all talk, no action.

Reasons to be grumpy

It took Maritime NSW the better part of a month to fix this rubbish trap on the harbour. I had to hassle them three times before they finally took action.

Here's a photo I took last year of the same trap, showing how much rubbish it collected. The trap is at least a metre deep, and they tend to fill right up between visits from the Maritime rubbish boat. Imagine how much junk flowed into the harbour during the month when it was inoperable....

Success - but what a pain

At last - someone from Maritime NSW has come along and fixed up this rubbish trap. It's been a month since I first noticed that it was broken and adrift, and reported it to them. I followed up again a week later. I concluded over the weekend that the message was not getting through, so I wrote the CEO a good old fashioned letter and posted it on Monday. I guess he got it on Tuesday or Wednesday and action happened shortly thereafter.

Not much rubbish was caught by this trap for a bit over a month. What a crying shame.

NSW Maritime - 3rd time lucky

Around 15 June, I used the "contact us" section of the NSW Maritime website to let them know that the rubbish trap on Iron Cove Creek was broken.

A week later, I rang their call centre to let them know again - just in case any computer gremlins ate my initial attempt at contact.

The trap still hasn't been fixed - it's now almost 4 weeks since I first tried to let them know. Therefore, I have just wasted 10 minutes of my Sunday morning writing a polite letter to the Chief Executive of NSW Maritime, Mr Steve Dunn, to ask him if my messages are getting through to those responsible for maintaining and repairing these assets. I don't care what their problems are - I just want the trap fixed!

As I was doing a bit of Googling on this topic, I found a website for Harbourkeepers, which is worth a look.

Following up the following up

It's getting on three weeks since I first tried to tell Maritime NSW about a busted rubbish trap down our way. The longer they leave it broken, the more rubbish we'll see flowing into the harbour. Apparently today is World Environment Day, and Maritime NSW aren't doing much towards making the world a better place at the moment.

I might make another follow up phone call tomorrow. After that, it's time to start writing a proper letter to the CEO.

A rubbish example of follow up

Last Tuesday, I tried to contact NSW Maritime to let them know that one of their rubbish traps was busted and no longer collecting rubbish. As their call centre closes at 4.30pm, and there appears to be no option to leave a message, I tried using a form on their web site to lodge a report.

One week later, the trap is still broken. I had another look at the contact page at NSW Maritime to see who to call. It told me to call 131256 - but when I did so, the options that the computerised voice gave me didn't match what was listed on the website. I had no idea what option is select, so I just took a punt.

At least the bloke that I spoke to seemed to have some idea of what I was talking about. We'll see how long it takes them to hook the boom back up to the trap. I wonder what happened to my first attempt at contact? Have the gremlins been attacking the Maritime computer network as well?

Rubbish collection all adrift

Maritime NSW operates a number of rubbish collection traps where creeks flow into the harbour - there are two in our area. One of them has had a bad habit of late of coming adrift from one of its moorings - whether this is a result of wear and tear or foul play, I don't know.

Without the trap in place, great wads of rubbish will drift down the creek and into the harbour - not a nice thing to happen. The amount of rubbish that backs up at this point after heavy rain has to be seen to be believed. Without the traps, our harbour foreshores would be a real mess.

The Maritime call centre closes at 4.30pm, so I sent them an email this afternoon to let them know that this needs fixing.

XV460N all washed up

I don't think this boat is supposed to be lying on its side untethered near the Rodd Point sailing club. I'm not sure who to report this to - NSW Maritime maybe? I guess they can track down and contact the owner via the registration number.

XV460N

I rang NSW Maritime on 13 12 56 and quoted the registration number and the location.  They're going to try and contact the owner and let them know about it.

If they can't contact the owner, or the owner declines to take an interest, one of their boating officers will go and tow it to an emergency mooring.  Goodness knows what they do with it after that.  I can't see it raising much money at auction.  It looks like it's only fit for scrap to me.

Maritime NSW

There is a park in Drummoyne that I go through on a regular basis.  It's a nice big park - right on the water, and equipped with a good boat ramp, a footy ground, a playground and plenty of room for dogs, kids, cricket games and all that sort of thing.  It's also quite well used, and unfortunately, it cops a bit of abuse.

The problem is that the abuse never seems to get cleaned up.  All the rubbish bins have been vandalised - I noticed one had been ripped from its setting recently and tossed into the harbour.  Even plaques dedicated to former mayors of the suburb have been vandalised.

You don't want to know about the toilets and the stands around the oval.

The bins and toilets didn't really surprise me.  What did surprise me was vandalism around the boat ramp.  The boat ramp itself is pretty immune to damage - you'd need a case of dynamite to put a dent in it, but the signage around it is suffering.  

Now the boat ramp in question is pretty popular with boaties.  Whenever I go through the car park, there are a couple of empty boat trailers there, and I occasionally see a boat being winched into or out of the water.  Why have none of these people bothered to report the damage around the ramp which is so apparent?  

Here is my response to just one small bit of damage.

---------------------------------

20 April 2009

 Mr Steve Dunn

A/CEO

Maritime NSW

Locked Bag 5100
Camperdown NSW 1450

  

Dear Mr Dunn

 Vandalised signage at boat ramp in Five Dock

 I am writing to you because it is unclear from your website who I should be addressing this to.

 The photo below was taken at the boat ramp at Taplin Park, off Bayswater St in Five Dock Bay.  Can you please arrange to have to repaired or removed

-------------------------

I got a letter back not long after to say that they'd fixed it.  I wasn't really that worried about the sign - what worried me was how hard it was to figure out how to contact the right person at Maritime NSW (their website is a dog in this regard), and that it seems that they are rarely patrolling their turf.  If someone from Maritime NSW did a regular sweep through this boat ramp say once a week or so, they'd quickly pick up on problems like this and fix them.

But I guess they are all too busy having coffee at Liquidity to get out and actually check on their infrastructure.  If they won't get out of the office to have a look, we'll just have to do it for them.  My big hope here is that someone in Maritime NSW thinks, "Gee, we should get out more regularly to check that everything is ok at our ramps".

Personally, I doubt it, but now that I know who to write to, I can continue to dig into my stamp pile to annoy him until they start to be proactive rather than reactive.  Simple vandalism like this really detracts from what is otherwise a lovely spot.