From the street to the surf, from rockpools to shopping malls, keeping the Northern Beaches clean and maintaining your public spaces never stops. If you see litter, pollution, or just something you think we’ve missed, please use our online tool to report it.

Cleaning our Beaches

We rake our beautiful beaches to remove litter once a week during summer (October–April), and once a month over winter. Particular beaches, like Fishermans Beach, aren’t raked because there’s a rock platform just beneath the sand. Seaweed is not removed from any beach.

Cleaning our Rockpools

There are 13 glorious rockpools on the Northern Beaches. Like all swimming pools, they must be maintained and cleaned regularly, generally once a week in summer and every two weeks in winter. During cleaning they’re closed to the public. The rockpool is emptied around three hours before low tide, the deck surrounds are washed down and the walls and floor are cleaned with a high-pressure gurney. The pool is then refilled. Any pump and infrastructure issues are also checked. 

If the low tide is high, we may not be able to empty the rockpool, and after big seas rockpools often fill with weed and sand – we may have to use bobcats and excavators. Plus, rockpools may become green and slimy because of humid conditions, high water temperature and high usage. Find out more about cleaning schedules at Rockpools. 

Cleaning Bus Shelters

Adshel maintains bus shelters that have advertising, so if you see litter, vandalism or broken glass, please report it directly to Adshel on 1800 501 402.

For all other bus shelters on major roads, we clear litter weekly and wash them monthly. If one needs urgent attention, call us on 1300 434 434.

Cleaning our Shopping Centres

We remove litter from major shopping centres and malls every single day. Footpaths are machine-cleaned at night or in the early morning and we use a street-sweeping truck to clear kerbs and gutters. We’ll try to keep noise to a minimum.

In addition to regular shopping centre cleaning, once a year we also remove stains, grease and chewing gum from paved footpath areas. We do this at night or in the early morning to minimise inconvenience. 

Cleaning our Sportsfields

Participating in sports is part of the fabulous Northern Beaches lifestyle and it draws visitors here too. We take pride in keeping facilities up to scratch by making sure large ovals are cleared of litter every week. We clear smaller ovals, used less frequently, as required. 

Cleaning our Residential Streets

We sweep most residential streets with kerbs and guttering every 10 weeks. If we can’t stick to our schedule because of parked cars or some other reason, we’ll let you know. If you feel your street needs extra sweeping, please call us - 1300 434 434.