Paradise trashed: Plea to campers

The Wamban resident said she was horrified to find campers had left the Burra Creek Nature Reserve, west of Moruya, littered with rubbish and even human faeces.

“There is a big swimming hole; the water is so clear you can drink it (but) it is not nice swimming knowing  someone has done a shit on the banks,” Ms Perry-Dempster said.

“I was mostly disappointed because they were locals,” she said of the group of young campers who left one of her favourite spots in such a state.

“It is my sanctuary,” she said.

“It is such a pristine area.

“We are privileged to be able to go to a place like that.

“When I first saw it was locals, I said, ‘thank goodness, they will leave it as they found it’. How wrong was I?”

Ms Perry-Dempster said took to the internet to vent her outrage and warn that stiff fines could be levied. The site has since been tidied.

“I was thrilled,” she said.

However, Ms Perry-Dempster wants visitors and residents alike to protect paradise this summer – wherever yours may be – “and leave it the same, if not better, than when they came”.

Many passing motorists on the Burra Creek road had tossed their refuse out the windows.

“I walk along that track every day and I packed five shopping plastic bags full of empty bottles and cans that had just been thrown out of cars on the track,” Ms Perry-Dempster said.

She wants residents to keep an eye out for anyone camping illegally or lighting fires without permits.

“Take note of who they are or even a number plate,” she said.