The once pristine beaches of Waṉuwuy in East Arnhem Land are now littered with washed-up rubbish and discarded fishing nets.(Back Roads)none
Along one of the most remote coastlines in the world, you’ll find the white sandy beaches of Waṉuwuy.
Perched on the eastern tip of East Arnhem Land, this breathtaking spot is also home to the close-knit Yolngu community.
World-famous for their music and culture — Yothu Yindi, King Stingray and Baker Boy are all celebrated Yolngu artists — their strong traditional practices nurture the land and its people.
It’s where I meet local Yolngu elder, Mandaka Marika.
The coastline here forms part of Mandaka’s homelands.
He recalls the kilometres of white sand he walked along with his family during his childhood, learning how to care for country through practice and storytelling.
Sadly, these once pristine sands are now home to washed-up rubbish that litter the landscape.
A never-ending clean-up
Over the course of a year, debris arrives on this 70-kilometre stretch of coastline at a rate of a tonne for every kilometre.
Littered along the tideline are thongs, bottles, toys, and fishing nets.
After every big storm, Mandaka and Dhimurru rangers collect as much rubbish from the beaches as possible.
They fill huge bags every week, but their efforts are never enough to clean up the shoreline entirely.
Some litter ends up buried under the sand, to be unearthed during the next big storm or tide.
“We have a songline for everything,” Mandaka tells me.
“We have a songline for the tide as the sea rushes down to touch the beach. We have a songline for the turtle.”
“We don’t have a songline for the plastic,” he says.
The songlines the former ranger is referring to are ancestral pathways, mapping land, creation and lore.
They hold vital knowledge and cultural values, helping to preserve extensive knowledge of flora and fauna, crucial for survival.
Mandaka believes the plastic comes from commercial fishing operations in Indonesian waters, where the fishing industry is largely unregulated, and trawling is still allowed.
The circular currents in the Gulf support that theory.
Ghost nets and their impact
These beaches are also key nesting sites for the green turtle and a habitat for six of the world’s seven turtle species.
All are listed nationally as vulnerable or endangered.
A green turtle lays eggs only once every three years or so — between one and six clutches of 70 to 110 eggs — but only one in 1,000 hatchlings survive to maturity.
Abandoned nets cause a significant number of deaths in turtle populations.
The fishing nets, some of which can be kilometres long and weigh several tonnes, become known as ghost nets when they are lost or abandoned.
Floating through the sea, they collect more rubbish and become tangled with sea life.
An estimated 640,000 tonnes of ghost nets are abandoned in our oceans every year.
They have a lifespan of 600 years as most ghost nests are predominantly made of plastic.
Cleaning up the nets is vital. But then what?
Transporting nets south from Arnhem Land for recycling isn’t viable — it’s too remote — so they often end up in landfill or are burnt.
There’s another option, though, and it links back to a cultural practice shared by Aboriginal people across the continent.YouTube ABC Australia You Tube: Arnhem Land’s Astonishing Coastline | Back Roads
Conservation of culture
Aly De Groot is a fibre artist.
In her Darwin studio, she has been making a traditional bait-collecting basket, of which only three exist in the world.
“This basket is from the area where my family are from,” Aly says of the version she has created using ghost nets, its bright colours faded by the sea.
Aly has joined Yirralka rangers to collect materials from the beaches to weave with.
“It still stuns me to be in one of the most remote places you can imagine — where you’ve driven for hours and hours down a dirt road, and then there’s all this rubbish on the beach,” says Aly.
The women bring the rubbish to the ranger station and spend days working with the materials.
They find value in the colours and textures and the stories they can weave.
“It might seem like a token effort, but I’m an optimist,” says Aly.
“It is about making an effort and communicating stories.”
The women have picked apart ropes and woven them around discarded bottles to create carriers.
They’ve woven earrings and baskets too — all items that can be sold to support the community.
Some of the women were already weavers, for others, this has been their first time; for both the weaving creates an opportunity for elders to pass on their knowledge to the next generation.
“I just love how something discarded now becomes something beautiful, has a new life, and carries a story,” says Aly.
With each passing year, wave after wave of plastic will continue to wash up on the white sands of East Arnhem Land.
For the Yolngu rangers, men and women, their uphill battle continues, but they will still work tirelessly to care and preserve their country, rich in culture and creativity.
Stream the full story in two-part special episodes of Back Roads in East Arnhem Land on Tuesday, March 5 and Tuesday, March 12 at 8:00pm on ABC TV or stream on ABC iview.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-05/back-roads-arnhem-land-ghost-nets/103510886
