First got involved with Clean Up Australia and they did a clean up once a day in March every year and the whole town got together and it was just massive amounts of rubbish that came on that one day.
It was frightening to think that we could pick up, you know, 20-30 bags of rubbish in one day and and you're not even touching the surface.
One day a year is just not enough. I looked over the Katherine Bridge and thought, well, who looks after the river?
Every wet season we'd see the river come up and we just watched the rubbish flow out to the sea and we just think something has to be done about this.
So we decided that we changed our walks and we'd walk down the river and of course you see rubbish.
So the first thing you do is pick it up and then it just got bigger and bigger and then someone would donate some bags to us and say do you want some bags to put your rubbish in?
It's just a roll on effect.
People will see what you do and come and approach you and ask can I help in some way? So we just say we'll meet us here at 6:00 in the morning and and you can help.
We instigated the spring cleanup in September for the North Australia, which gets all the rubbish removed before the river floods because the wet season's the worst time of the year.
The last 15 years I've noticed a big change. More people are aware and take care of, take care and put their rubbish in the bags three to five days a week.
I do now and I do about two hours a day. Yep, I collect quite a few bags. We we recycle and we reuse. I call it a nickname.
I call it my river gym.
So I do a lot of work and my husband said he's going to put a GPS on me so he doesn't know where I am half the time. They've nicknamed me the River Lady.
Mother Nature's only given us one environment and if we don't take care of it, we're going to lose it. They say find a bag, fill it up, pick three pieces of rubbish up a day.
Makes a difference. It does. It does make a difference. I'd like to see more people out there caring for where they live, caring for their environment. One individual can make a difference.
For decades, Jenny Duggan has shown extraordinary grassroots leadership as Katherine’s ‘rubbish warrior’, quietly transforming the landscape and community spirit of her town.
Each morning Jenny walks the banks of the Katherine River to remove litter. In collecting hundreds of kilograms of rubbish, she’s put the spotlight on environmental safety.
To reduce the danger of broken glass in public spaces, Jenny advocated for the Katherine Liquor Accord’s move to plastic wine bottles. She’s also a force behind Katherine's Neighbourhood Watch – all part of her drive to make Katherine safer for everyone.
Jenny supports community members experiencing hardship through her volunteer work with the St Vincent de Paul Society. Here Jenny serves on the management committee of Ormonde House, which provides housing for men in need, and on the management committee for Katherine’s Vinnies store.
In her daily, humble, practical service, Jenny exemplifies community care in action.
Learn more about positive ageing at health.gov.au/positive-ageing.