Harvey residents prepare for big bottle-boat race

Boats made from bottles splashed into the swimming pool, with their captains taking the tumble shortly after, as a south west town braces for a brand new recycling rowing race.

The Harvey Rotary Recycling Regatta is set for the Harvey pool on November 10 this year, with vessels hitting the pool this week in preparation of the event.

Filming an advert set to run on GWN7, teams from the Rotary Club of Harvey, Shire of Harvey, Albermarle and South32 took to the pool in their handcrafted bottle boats held together with nothing but sticky tape.

Rotary club president Robyn Coleman said the regatta would be an incredibly fun event attracting people to Harvey and raising awareness of reuse and recycling.

“This is going to be good fun for the whole family, and great for the kids during the school holidays,” she said.

“The biggest thing is to start getting your containers together now and following the rules, washing them out so the pool stays nice and clean.”

Mrs Coleman said the event was four years in the making, with its inspiration coming from the similar Masters Milk Carton Regatta held in Perth years ago and revived last year.

“There are going to be some great cash prizes and novel prizes along the way with lots of different categories,” she said.

The event will be open to people of all ages with teams of up to four allowed.

Each raft needs to have its crew fully out of the water, and must be larger than 1m x 1m.

Leschenault Leisure Centre manager Richard Duke said the event was set to have strong community engagement.

“Our 50m pool here in Harvey is a great community asset,” he said.

“Building the rafts will be a great activity for kids to do over the weekend and on school holidays.”

South32 Worsley Alumina Refinery general manager Julius Thomas said he was delighted to be able to support the Rotary Club’s regatta through its community grants program.

“We have lots of talented engineers working at South32 Worsley Alumina, so we’re excited to see the unique raft designs created from recycled materials at the regatta,” he said.

The event will take place on the eve of National Recycling Week, with representatives from Containers for Change on hand to ensure all the containers are recycled properly.

Registration for the event will open once the advert for the event launches on GWN7.