Parks Victoria area chief ranger Jessica Reid said stolen and abandoned vehicles were a "common and major concern" along the Goulburn River.
“We've been working closely with other organisations to try and determine the ownership of vehicles and make the responsible owners liable for clean-up,” she said.
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Ms Reid said Parks Victoria had seen a rise in the number of abandoned campsites in the area, and was working to conduct regular clean-ups with volunteers to limit environmental damage.
“There are plenty of options for disposing of household rubbish, renovation waste and commercial garbage, ranging from municipal garbage collections, hard waste collections, booking a skip bin from a responsible company, or taking it to landfill,” she said.
“The process of removing rubbish is a significant expense to Parks Victoria which also diverts park rangers’ time away from managing and improving the state’s parks and reserves.
“This impacts the maintenance of facilities and implementation of conservation programs that protect plants, animals and historical and cultural sites.”
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Ms Reid said as well as being unsightly, dumped rubbish contaminated local water supplies, spread invasive weeds and poisoned animals and birds that ate household waste.
Retiree Stuart Brown said he had seen river rubbish worsen over winter, with high waters pushing plastic bottles along the bank of the Goulburn River and up into the trees.
But it wasn't just bottles that concerned him.
“I saw three cars down behind the Shepparton Golf Club by or in the water,” he said.
“People should be aware of what’s going on, this is waste people are dumping instead of taking it to the tip . . . these people should be thinking about the plastic.”
While one of the abandoned cars had been covered in police tape, it had been left to slowly rust over time with no sign of further intervention by authorities.
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Mr Brown said downstream near Bunbartha was particularly bad for discarded waste and items.
“I was riding my bike there the other day, and the area behind the waterworks is quite rubbishy . . . people just don't clean up,” he said.
He said the problem had been "pretty consistent,” and the inaction had become increasingly frustrating over time.
“People aren’t aware of the damage they can do by throwing rubbish away,” Mr Brown said, flagging the dangers items like bottle caps posed to local wildlife.
“I retired six months ago, and you don't realise what a mess there is until you look around.”
Mr Brown said winter posed the perfect opportunity for service clubs and local volunteers to arrange a clean up - with few snakes posing a threat in cooler months.
“It's an opportunity we need to take,” he said.
“We need to sort out priority areas – these big bends where the water swirls tend to be where drink bottles congregate, and then get caught in the timber when it recedes.”
● Anyone witnessing rubbish dumping or littering in a park can call Parks Victoria on 13 1963 or the EPA litter line on 1300 372 842.
