A SAAB, a Corolla and a Prado were among the cars airlifted above the Cotter River on Wednesday morning, as ACT authorities try to avoid water contamination before the expanded catchment reaches full capacity.
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A heavy-lift helicopter took one hour to lift nine abandoned cars from an area near Vanity’s Crossing, about 50 metres from the river.
National Parks and Catchments operations manager Brett McNamara said the $40,000 operation took days to plan and would protect the city’s water supply.
“In addition to improving the visual amenity of the area, removing the dumped vehicles from the Cotter Catchment will prevent petrol, heavy metals and other potentially dangerous chemicals from entering Canberra’s water supply,” he said.
Mr McNamara said the cars would have been fully submerged once the water level in the Cotter catchment reached full capacity, following the dam project’s forecast completion in July.
“At capacity it will be close to 50 metres above the existing backwater mark where the vehicles were located,” he said.
A K-MAX helicopter flew in from Wollongong to complete the retrievals, and Mr McNamara was impressed by the chopper’s performance.
“It is the only helicopter of its kind in Australia, [and] is used all over Australia to transport transmission lines,” he said.
“[The] particular rotor blade has two rotors and no tail rotor, designed in such a way to assist the lift capability of the machine.
“It is the aerial crane of the helicopter world.”
The river clean-up, a collaboration between ACT Parks and ACTEW Water, follows the closing of the Vanity’s Crossing track in February last year after contaminates including faeces and urine, petrochemicals, heavy metals and litter were found in the area.
Mr McNamara said a small cliff nearby – providing a vertical drop of 400-500 metres – had been an extremely popular spot for dumping vehicles for years.
“That’s not to say we don’t get other vehicles dumped and abandoned, but none in as difficult location,” he said.
“There were varying degrees [of disrepair]: one had been burnt as [it] were pushed over the cliff, some of them were a panel beater’s worst nightmare.”
He said no cars had been dumped since gates installed on either side of the crossing were locked to protect the area.
“The only reason we are here is because of the Cottor Catchment: 80 per cent of our water comes out of [it],” he said.
“Canberra’s water security is a priority and with only a limited number of water sources available, ensuring they remain clean and free of contamination is very important.”
