Flower Jogiya-Mitchell started Clean Up Glenroy over Covid lockdown. During daily walks with her husband, they would often find themselves lamenting the rubbish lying around their suburb.
Having moved from the UK to Australia a few years earlier, they were disheartened by aspects of their new home.
“I’m an immigrant to Australia, and I am proud to be a part of this vast, lucky country,” says Flower. “But the UK is much cleaner than Australia and it used to be the other way around.”
Flower and her husband decided to instill more pride in their neighbourhood.
They set up a Clean Up Glenroy Facebook page, and started regular litter clean-ups around the local neighbourhood at places like Jacana Station, Glenroy skate park, and the Western Ring Road. People quickly joined in and soon they had a small group of curious would-be rubbish collectors.
These days, says Flower, Clean Up Glenroy has a solid core group and others who join in when they can. She says attitudes have changed from the early days when some people would suggest they just leave the rubbish on the ground: “this isn’t Toorak!”
Yes, it’s not Toorak, says Flower, but why should that make any difference?
“This is our home. We want to start a family and I want to do what I can for my kids to have a nice place to live.”
Contact Clean Up Glenroy via Facebook.
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