National Volunteer Week 2025 is celebrating the power that volunteering has in bringing people together, with this year’s theme being Connecting Communities. Volunteering creates lasting relationships, and bridges caps in our communities by encouraging connected and inclusive neighbourhoods.
As Volunteering Australia highlight in their Key Volunteering Statistics 2024 report, while there are more than six million people in Australia that volunteer through agencies and organisations, millions more Aussies are informally volunteering in their local communities.
While National Volunteer Week 2025 may be coming to a close on Sunday May 25, there are still plenty of opportunities throughout the year to volunteer in your local communities. As our beautiful Australian environment is always on the forefront of our minds, we’ve listed some formal and informal volunteering ideas to help you get outside and keep your local community clean!
Clean Up Australia Day clean up events
Clean Up Australia Day is one of Australia’s most recognised and beloved community-based environmental movements, inspiring Australians to care for and clean up our local communities for the past 35 years.
Clean up Australia Day is held annually on the first Sunday of March, with Councils, workplaces, schools and community groups organising clean up events all over Australia. You can find out more about joining a clean-up event near you or learn how you can register your own here.
The proper waste management at the end of a clean up is just as important as the collection. When hosting or taking part in an event, make sure that littered items are disposed of correctly. This includes cigarette butts, wrappers and plastic bags going into landfill bins; beverage containers including bottles, cans and cartons being collected and returned at your nearby Container Deposit Scheme refund point; and hard plastics, wine and spirit bottles going into recycling bins.
Join your local Friends of Network or Landcare Group
Landcare Australia is a national not-for-profit organisation that has been at the forefront of community and corporate engagement in environmental conservation for over 35 years. The national Landcare community includes over 6,000 community-led environment groups, consisting of over 140,000 volunteers.
Landcare groups focus on the sustainable management of natural resource assets, and encompass individuals and groups across our countries diverse landscape – from coastal to urban and remote areas of Australia. Members are united on a shared passion for creating positive local change in their communities and environments, and understand that working together has more impact than working alone!
Getting involved is easy! Landcare has directories through each state and territories peak body, such as Landcare Victoria, Landcare NSW and Landcare Tas, where you can search for a group near you that aligns with your values.
Victorian’s can volunteer with your BeachPatrol or Love Our Street
BeachPatrol and Love Our Street’s network of volunteers is raising awareness and empowering communities to reduce plastic pollution in our Australian environment. Volunteers meet monthly to gather plastic litter from beaches, streets and parks – all while connecting with likeminded people. Register now to join a group near you!
Volunteer groups focus on hyper local grass roots action, with BeachPatrol engaging local communities to care for their own beaches and parks. Like Clean Up Australia post clean up analyses, groups log their data in the LitterStopper app, which helps feed DEECA’s LitterWatch database.
Litter clean-up activities like these are so important in activating our communities and importantly making sure waste ends up in the right place. Hard plastics and metals in recycling, beverage containers in the CDS, and soft plastics and cigarette butts in landfill!
Help keep our beaches clean with Take 3 for the Sea
Take 3 for the Sea is an award winning global movement or people protecting the ocean from plastic pollution. The concept is simple, and it’s one of the easiest ways to get involved in keeping your local environment clean.
Take 3 for the Sea inspires people to see the effects of plastic pollution and make a difference by unleashing the power of 3:
- Take 3 pieces of rubbish with you when you leave the beach, waterway… or anywhere.
- Take 3 actions to reduce your single-use plastic.
- Take 3 people on the journey with you.
If you want to be even more involved with the amazing work that Take 3 for the Sea are doing, you can register your interest as a volunteer to take part in behind the scenes program development, beach clean-ups, educational programs and community initiatives.
Take part in some Citizen science initiatives
Citizen science is the practice of public participation and collaboration in public research to increase scientific knowledge – the idea is if everyone mobilises across their communities to gather data and collect insights, we can capture a broader range of information more easily!
Citizen science is an accessible way for people to get involved in data capture, and volunteers can often have varying levels of experience, with many programs being available for children to participate in. Citizen science programs often include environmental or wildlife monitoring programs, an across Australia there are many projects you can get involved in today. We’ve listed just a couple below:
- Australian Microplastics Assessment Project (AUSMAP)
AUSMAP is on a mission to find out how much microplastic pollution is out there, and engaging Australians to help report it. AUSMAP are calling on a large number of Australians to engage with behaviour change so we can stop any more plastic disintegrating into our waterways.
Want to help map Australia’s microplastics? Find out more here! - Aussie Bird Count 2025 – October 20-26
Organised by BirdLife Australia a national bird conservation charity, the Aussie Bird Count is asking Australians of all ages to record all the birds they see in their garden, local park or beach within a 20-minute period to help BirdLife Australia develop a better understanding of our local birds.
Find out how you can join the count here.
