By our local reporter

Fifty-three students from Blackwood Heights Primary School spent Saturday morning pulling shopping trolleys, tyres and more than 40 bags of rubbish out of Spotted Gum Creek.

The clean-up was organised by the school's Year 5 and 6 environment club after students noticed that the creek, which runs behind the school oval, was choked with plastic bags and bottles.

'We walk past it every day,' said club captain Theo Baptiste, 11. 'After the big storm in March, the water went brown and there was rubbish stuck in all the trees. We decided we couldn't just keep walking past.'

The club wrote to the local council asking for gloves, bags and skip bins. Council workers also removed three car tyres and two shopping trolleys that were too heavy for the students to lift.

Mayor Linda Tran, who joined the clean-up, praised the students' efforts. 'What these young people have done in one morning is remarkable,' she said. 'Spotted Gum Creek flows into the river, and the river flows into the bay. Every bag of rubbish they removed is a bag that will never reach the ocean.'

The students sorted the rubbish into recycling and landfill. Plastic drink bottles were the most common item, followed by chip packets and soft-drink cans. Ms Aisha Rahman, the teacher who runs the club, said the students were shocked by how much of the rubbish was single-use plastic.

'We counted 212 drink bottles,' she said. 'The students are now planning a campaign to get the school canteen to switch to refillable bottles.'

The environment club will return to the creek once a term to check on its progress. They have also begun planting native grasses along the bank to stop soil washing into the water.

Local resident Frank Mancini, 74, has lived beside the creek for forty years. 'I remember catching yabbies in there as a boy,' he said. 'It's good to see the kids caring about it. Maybe the yabbies will come back.'

Anyone who would like to help at the next clean-up can contact the school office.