About Us
Our Community Keeping our Waterways Clean
Make a Donation
Get Involved
Coastal Waste Warriors started with Amber Dawn and her legacy.
Here is our story…
The Field family were inspired to start Coastal Waste Warriors in December 2018 in memory of their daughter Amber Dawn who loved nature and our ocean. A children’s book beautifully written and illustrated by her Kindergarten teachers Jenny Dowie and Belinda Joynes called ‘Amber Dawn Princess Warrior and the Dolphin Rescue’. The story is about Amber saving a dolphin from fishing nets helped turn their family’s pain and loss of their beautiful girl into taking positive action together with their community to keep our waterways clean, inspiring others to care for the environment we live in. Our first beach clean-up was held in January 2019 at Pyramids Beach where Amber’s story book is set and a favourite place where the Field family created many memories together with Amber.
It was attended by 50 volunteers and 75kg of litter was collected and was the start of Amber Dawn’s legacy to inspire our community to come together on a regular basis to keep our waterways clean in the Mandurah region. In 4 years and 35 clean ups, over 2000 volunteers have collectively removed almost 4 tonnes of litter and marine debris (over 100,000 pieces!) from along Mandurah’s coastline and waterways.
Coastal Waste Warriors incorporated into a not-for-profit organisation on the 29th July 2020 by a group of regular attending volunteers with the vision to acquire a grant to support the purchase of a dedicated Coastal Waste Warriors Clean-up trailer to store and transport their equipment in. From a small community group, we have grown into a much larger movement of volunteers dedicated to keeping our ocean and waterways clean. We continue to work on new source reduction initiatives in partnership with other like-minded organisations, community groups and schools to conserve our natural environment and create behaviour change through education.
Amber’s legacy is to inspire others to look after each other and our world around us. Amber Dawn’s books can be purchased at our clean up events for only $12.
$2 from the sale of each Amber Dawn book is donated to the HeartKids Charity.
All remaining profits are donated to Coastal Waste Warriors Inc. to fund environmental conservation projects in memory of Amber Dawn Field.
What We Do
Conservation
Conserving our natural environment and marine life through community clean up events.
Awareness
Connecting with the community, educating and raising awareness about the negative impacts of littering and plastic pollution on our natural environment and marine life through their participation in our clean ups and other events.
Data Collection
Collecting data about litter collected at our clean up events and inputting data into an approppriate database such as the Tangaroa Blue Australian Marine Debris Initiative (AMDI) to assist with source reduction initiatives and campaigns.
Education
Engaging, inspiring and educating the community on ways they can reduce waste by following the sustainability principles including Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rethink, Rot and Retrieve.
Connection
Working in partnership with other related community groups to advance these objects.
Our Impact
community clean ups
The total number of community clean up events at different locations around Mandurah’s coastline and waterways from Jan 2019 to Oct 2023
Volunteer sign ins
The total number of volunteer sign ins across total number of community clean up events.
total weight (kgs)
Total weight of collected litter and marine debris.
Total Items
Total Items of collected litter and marine debris.
With Your Help, We are Making Change
The Clean Waterways Working Group was formed following the death of dolphin calf Luca who became entangled in fishing line in August 2019. The community response was immense and this inspired many community groups, businesses and local government organisations to come together to raiase awareness about the impacts of littering fishing line and other waste that causes harm and death to our local marine life.
Over the last 5 years the CWWG has been instrumental in educating our local community via a series of behaviour change videos and annual ‘Luca’s Legacy’ clean up event. You can view the six videos launched from 2021-2022 tackling littering from fishing line and other plastics including soft plastics, hard plastics and cigarette butts. All videos can be viewed on our Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@coastalwastewarriors
The Clean Waterways Working Group consists of representatives from City of Mandurah, Coastal Waste Warriors, Estuary Guardians Mandurah, Mandurah Cruises, Mandurah Volunteer Dolphin Rescue Group, Peel Harvey Catchment Council, Sharon Meredith Photography and Tackle World Miami.
Clean waterways Campaigns
Make a Donation
$30
$50
$100
$250
$500
Other