IF you’re going to illegally dump rubbish, it would be wise to remove everything with your name and address on it first.

A Bakewell man returned home on Saturday to find all the rubbish he is thought to have illegally dumped in bushland in Rosebery sitting in his driveway.

Frederick Tomlinson caught wind of the carloads of discarded goods through Facebook and went to clean it up.

media_camera “We just assumed it must have bounced out of his truck so we returned it to its rightful owner,” said one of the men who collected the rubbish from bushland near Darwin. Picture: Facebook

When Mr Tomlinson and a mate arrived they found several pieces of matching identification along with some semi-valuable items — a fish tank, children’s school reports, a rabbit hutch — so they decided the car loads of dumped goods needed to be returned.

“We just assumed it must have bounced out of his truck so we returned it to its rightful owner,” he said.

media_camera The rubbish, back where it allegedly started. Picture: Facebook

When they arrived at the address no one was home.

“I was going to say ‘hey mate, you’re going to get a fine because there’s so much stuff to identify you in here, why don’t you take the stuff from me and take it to the dump’,” he said.

“My idea was to let him clean it up himself and avoid a fine while letting him know people don’t want that kind of behaviour.”

Tomlinson said he was confident the rubbish belonged to the man at the multiple matching addresses after being contacted by a neighbour who said the bloke had a big clean up a couple of days ago and had not moved house since.

As an avid outdoorsman Tomlinson often picks up dumped rubbish to help preserve the privileges the Territory has when it comes to the recreational use of bushland.

“In the long run it wrecks it for us — eventually the government clamps down on outdoor activities entirely because it’s too difficult to clean up after them like they have in New South Wales, Queensland and SA,” he said.

“That’s why I’m up here. I don’t want that to happen.

“I often collect rubbish if I see it out but this is the first time I’ve returned it to the sender.”