The 'Guardian Of Sydney Harbour'

Rosemary Bolger, ABC reporter
If you didn't have to work to earn money, how would you spend your time? Well, I recently met a man in Sydney who found himself in that position, quit his job and committed to something you probably wouldn't expect.

Andy Orr, The Guardian of Sydney Harbour
You know what, I work harder now doing this than I used to work as an English teacher. The only difference is I don't get paid to do this and I'm happy not to get paid to do this. The pleasure of doing it is the reward I suppose.

Rosemary Bolger, ABC reporter
My name is Rosemary Bolger and this is the Make Me Feel Good podcast.

Andy Orr, The Guardian of Sydney Harbour
These are some of the items I find every day on the beach. So starting with tennis balls, absolutely toxic. Some days I'll pull 30 of these out of Sydney Harbour in one day. Tyler's crosses, some days I'll find 30 or 40 of these on the beach.

Rosemary Bolger, ABC reporter
He's knee deep in water with an eagle eye for plastic.

Andy Orr, The Guardian of Sydney Harbour
This one here, this is expandable glue, every single day, big pieces.

Rosemary Bolger, ABC reporter
You'll find 55 year old Andy Orr on beaches like this around Sydney Harbour most days of the week.

Andy Orr, The Guardian of Sydney Harbour
This is my second home. I spend 20 hours a week on these beaches and other Sydney Harbour beaches every week. I know the Harbour like the back of my hand. So there is nobody who takes plastic out of the water. Apart from myself, I'm the only one that I know of. I'll stand in the water, I'll get 3,000 pieces of plastic in one hour just if there's a westerly wind blowing.

Rosemary Bolger, ABC reporter
Andy started his plight against plastic about a decade ago in his spare time.

Andy Orr, The Guardian of Sydney Harbour
I was here about 10 years ago with my wife just going for a walk and I was appalled by the amount of plastic on the beach and in the water as well. A swamp of plastic in the water and I thought someone's got to do something about this.

Rosemary Bolger, ABC reporter
So he did. Finding time between his job as a teacher, Andy would be at the beach picking up plastic.

Andy Orr, The Guardian of Sydney Harbour
Soy fish! Every day. Lids! Every single day.

Rosemary Bolger, ABC reporter
Then two years ago came a change in circumstance.

Andy Orr, The Guardian of Sydney Harbour
I inherited a lot of money, well for me it's a lot of money, possibly for the people who live around here it's not such a huge amount of money. But I don't need to work again, I don't need to do paid employment ever again and that's why I'm down here. I mean before I inherited any money I was down here picking up plastic. When I wasn't teaching English I was down here every available hour but now I can afford to do this full-time down here on these beaches. But also in Glebe, I go to Haberfield, Mossman, a lot of beaches which people haven't heard of but they're covered in plastic.

Rosemary Bolger, ABC reporter
And how does it make you feel to be doing this?

Andy Orr, The Guardian of Sydney Harbour
I love it, I absolutely love it. Yes, I do feel that I'm making a difference, not just to Sydney, to Australia, to the world. A lot of plastic drifts out of Sydney Harbour and goes to Antarctica, New Zealand, Asia, Europe, it goes everywhere. So it's my gift to the planet. And that's, yeah, it's not very often you have an opportunity to give a gift to the whole population of the world. So yeah, that's part of the reason I love doing it.

Rosemary Bolger, ABC reporter
He's even got a nickname.

Andy Orr, The Guardian of Sydney Harbour
When I'm on the beach picking up plastic I don't listen to music, I don't look at my phone and I just think about life, I think about everything. And I came up with a nickname for myself, The Gosh. G-O-S-H, which stands for Guardian of Sydney Harbour. If anyone ever wants to call me The Gosh, then great, but at the moment it's just me who calls myself The Gosh.

Rosemary Bolger, ABC reporter
We'll see if we can get it going. Okay, great, yeah. Interestingly, The Gosh doesn't have social media, so his efforts have gone largely unnoticed, except for the odd curious beachgoer.

Andy Orr, The Guardian of Sydney Harbour
When I was younger, people used to say, oh, we've only got one planet, you know. And I just used to think, rah, rah, rah, yeah, one planet, whatever, you know. But, you know, I realise now there is only one planet for us. And, you know, all these small pieces of plastic that I find on the beach, you know, people think it doesn't make a difference. But when I find, you know, 400, 500 small pieces of plastic on a very short beach like this just in one hour, then I'd like to show people that it does make a difference. Each tiny bit of plastic that you throw away.

Rosemary Bolger, ABC reporter
So how long will this last?

Andy Orr, The Guardian of Sydney Harbour
I'll do this until I can't walk anymore. But then again... And at that point, I've decided I'm actually going to buy a boat. I might even buy a boat soonish, drop the anchor and then just pick up plastic and then take my boat to the next beach. Yeah, so that's what I'll do.

Rosemary Bolger, ABC reporter
If this episode has made you feel a little more passionate, make sure you follow the Make Me Feel Good podcast on the ABC Listen app. Until next time, thanks for listening.