Sensis provides $16,300 grant to National Centre for Sustainability
to help preserve the Murray River

Efforts to help preserve the iconic Murray River will be boosted in the Merbein Common floodplain of Mildura, thanks to a successful partnership between Sensis and Landcare Australia encouraging local residents to recycle their old Yellow Pages® and White Pages® directories

At a recent presentation ceremony , Sensis the producer of the Yellow Pages® and White Pages® directories, donated $16,300 to Sunraysia Institute of TAFE's National Centre of Sustainability, to further their efforts in the creation of a new 12 week outdoor education project for local Koori students, focussing on the protection, enhancement and promotion of two of the Merbien Common billabongs.

The funds received are part of a campaign initiated last year by Sensis and Landcare Australia challenging local communities to recycle their old Yellow Pages® and White Pages® directories. In return Sensis would donate funds, based on the percentage of Yellow Pages® and White Pages® directories recycled, to Landcare Australia to put towards environmental projects aimed at protecting and restoring the Murray River.

Sensis' Environment Manager, Fiona Baxter said: "With a staggering 67% of old directories recycled last year, equating to over 15 million copies, Australia has achieved a new world record in directory recycling. On a local level Mildura residents recycled 70% of their old directories making them one of Australia's top ten directory recyclers".

Daryl Waters, Project Co-ordinator for the Sunraysia branch of the National Centre of Sustainability said: "Billabongs are a significant component of river health, essential in the processes of buffering floods, cleansing water and providing stable and productive nurseries and respite areas for birds, animals and fish. It is because of these stable and productive values that they are steeped in Indigenous cultural and spiritual history". "The story of billabongs, water health and Australia's cultural past need telling", he added. Also supporting the conservation of the Murray River through the Sensis® directory recycling program, is Australian sporting phenomenon Tammy van Wisse. Tammy's most recent achievement is a world record 2438 kilometre swim down the Murray River from Corryong in Victoria to the river's mouth in South Australia, a feat that took 106 days.

"We have been slowly running up a national debt in salinity, destroying precious plants and animals, and reducing water quality. Just like swimming the Murray, the challenge of protecting and conserving its future will be a major task. But real change begins with real people and history has proven that individuals do make a difference".