In the year 2002 the Big Poo was born in the town of Kiama, New South Wales.
It was brought to life by Ian Cohen, then a member of State Parliament. Ian had it built from foam and announced ‘it’s a floater!’. The five-meter long Poo began stopping traffic at the entrance to the town to raise awareness of sewage being dumped into the ocean at nearby Bombo beach, whilst nearby farmers were desperate to use recycled water on their crops. A common story in this drought ravaged land.
In 2005, the Big Poo was given to the Clean Ocean Foundation and began the journey south to save Gunnamatta Beach...
There is a sewage outfall at Gunnamatta Beach, the largest by volume shoreline outfall in Australia, discharging over 430 million litres of effluent into the ocean every day.
Lots of people came together and worked very hard to fix the problem.
Finally, on October 18th 2006, a big campaign victory was achieved when the Victorian state government announced a new water recycling policy. This included a $300 million upgrade to the standard of wastewater treatment at Melbourne’s Eastern Treatment Plant. The water at Gunnamatta beach became safe for everyone to swim in. Reuse of the recycled wastewater for agriculture and industry can also lead to a 80% reduction of discharge into the ocean.
There were so many people that helped the campaign over so many years. It is impossible to thank them all. Together, with the Big Poo by their side, they made this possible.