He would have picked up a tractor tyre but that was simply too big, stuck in the mud and would have sunk his kayak.
It took Zach just five hours to collect the rubbish, all found along the shore and riverbank.
The sheer haul saddened Zach.
“Somewhere along the way some people have forgotten how to be good guests and how to walk lightly on the earth,” he said.
Every January Zach jumps in his kayak and makes a conscious effort to pick up as much rubbish as he can, in honour of his brother Luke, who passed away on January 4, 2015.
Luke was 12 years older than Zach and instilled in him a life-long love of the outdoors.
“Luke had a huge appreciation of the land and I know he would be stoked with what I am doing today,” Zach said.
“When I am feeling sorrow and I am out on the water picking up rubbish, it helps me to clear my head and I always feel like Luke is right there with me.”
Zach said even though it had been seven years since Luke’s death, he still felt the grief keenly, especially around each anniversary.
He usually takes a couple of days to process and sit with his grief and then he heads out in the kayak and starts picking up rubbish.
He has paddled along the Campaspe, Murray and Goulburn rivers — and this year has been by far his biggest haul of rubbish.
“It makes me sad to see so much litter. If people would only put their rubbish in the bin it would go a long way to keeping the earth a lot cleaner,” Zach said.
“It might only seem something small, but it can make a huge difference.
“I know it doesn’t solve the problem, but every little thing we do does help.”
Zach often heads down the river in his kayak picking up rubbish.
He normally throws an old Esky without a lid he found floating down the river on board, and fills that up with rubbish during his shorter paddles.
“One day I saw a duck with fishing line wrapped around its beak and I couldn’t get close enough to get it off, which should show us all why it is so important to put your rubbish in the bin,” he said.
He has also found a startling array of rubbish during the years.
“I think the changing water levels this year have contributed to why I found so much rubbish over such a short distance,” he said.
Zach grew up in Echuca and he said it was those early days at primary school where students spent five minutes picking up rubbish at the end of the week, that showed him from an young age the importance of living in a clean environment.
He lived in Fiji for for a while, which further instilled the importance of picking up rubbish.
While in Fiji, Zach also learnt how to dreadlock people’s hair — a process that requires hair to be teased and skilfully entwined with crochet hooks.
This skill has come in quite handy since his career as a qualified tennis coach through Element Tennis Coaching was put on hold because of COVID-19.
“I was looking for something else to do, so I did an apprenticeship and decided to establish a dreadlock salon from my house and Zed’s Dreadz was born,” he laughed.
Zed’s Dreadz is the only dreadlock salon in Echuca and Zach has been surprised by how well it has gone.
“When the world goes back to normal I hope to be able to do both,” he said.
Zach is also hoping he will see a lot less rubbish dumped in the environment and in waterways in the future.
“We all need to do our bit and it is really not that hard to pick up after ourselves and put our rubbish in the bin,” he said.
