Five years ago, as a 20-year-old carpenter, Boe Langford broke his back.

Key points:

  • Outback Cleanups Australia was started by 25-year-old Boe Langford
  • He says he and his partner have collected nearly 60,000kg of rubbish from remote bush and beach areas around the country
  • They visited Alice Springs and are now on their way to the Kimberley

His dream of road tripping through the outback in his troop carrier, motorbike in tow, hung in the balance.

But after months of rehabilitation, he hit the road, and he soon swapped the bike for bins on a mission to clean up the country.

“The rubbish out there was quite eye-opening,” he said.

“The spot [in the trailer] where the bike would go, you could fit four wheelie bins. So I thought, ‘Go for it’.”

Today, Mr Langford and his partner Kimberley Baraiolo travel around Australia, picking up rubbish across every state and territory — bar Tasmania, so far — under the banner Outback Cleanups Australia (OCA).

Outback Cleanups’ Kimberley Baraiolo and Boe Langford clean up in Alice Springs with the help of local volunteer Scott.(

Instagram: Outback Cleanups Australia

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The 25-year-old, who grew up in the remote South Australian opal town of Mintabie, started OCA in 2019 and is in the process of registering it as a charity.

“As far as we could tell, there was no non-profit organisation dedicated to just removing rubbish from remote Australia,” he said.

“So we thought we’d fill that gap because there’s a need for it.”

Bush around Alice Springs ‘trashed’

So far, they have removed close to 60,000 kilograms of rubbish, which they pack into sacks made of upcycled sail offcuts, pack into their trailer and deliver to local tips. 

Their finds have ranged from weird and wonderful to grim  — from sex toys (“lots of them”) to a “dead baby dolphin “without a scratch on it”, found floating in the sea off Port Lincoln. Mr Langford suspects it may have eaten plastic bags.

This week they travelled the corrugated dirt road from the remote community of Apatula to Alice Springs, collecting debris left behind by campers and spectators after last month’s Finke Desert Race.

“Ninety-five per cent of people did the right thing,” Mr Langford said. 

“But we probably found over 100 campsites littered with rubbish. 

“We got just under 800 kilos between Mount Dare and Alice Springs, mufflers included.”

Rubbish in the remains of a campfire, left behind by spectators after the Finke Desert Race.(

Supplied: Outback Cleanups Australia / Instagram

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They also piled up discarded tyres which they hope to remove at a later date “when we come back with larger funding and larger equipment”.

“But all the chip packets, Coke tins, burnt plastic plates, we got out of there,” Mr Langford said.

“We’re aiming to next year head out with two or three vehicles, not just one, and get some bigger sponsors on board that sponsor the Finke Race. 

“If they want to sponsor the riders, they should help sponsor the clean-up.,” he said

While waiting to have a new trailer made in Alice Springs, Boe Langford and Kim Baraiolo got to work cleaning up areas close to town frequented by free-campers and dumpers.

Rubbish dumped off Undoolya Road, east of the Alice Springs town centre.(

ABC Alice Springs: Eliza Goetze

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He believes community action would help solve the problem of careless rubbish-dumping and hopes to create an “eco-tourism-slash-conservation” operation.

“We’d like to have five employees or volunteers full-time, and then we’d like to bring, say, a group of 10 volunteers for 10 days and go and clean the bush up for three hours a day.

“They could come back feeling great and get some awesome photos. We’d do the hospitality,” Mr Langford said.

This weekend, the pair will head north-west from Alice Springs across the Tanami Desert towards the Kimberley, “up from Halls Creek to Kununurra, and do the Gibb River Road and clean up as much as we can before the wet weather hits”.