BICENTENNIAL FALLS overlooking the Swan River in East Fremantle is becoming so run down it’s getting dangerous.

Structural beams on a footbridge which crosses a stream leading to the falls have split, some so badly the bolts meant to connect them to the handrail have fallen out. One beam has lost both its bolts, meaning the railing is not connected at all. Some of the bridge’s timber has also started to rot.

On a pathway leading to a viewing area in the rambling park (which winds its way down the cliff face from Angwin Street to Riverside Road) timber steps are so rotten that visitors’ feet sink in to the spongy wood.

Further down, retaining walls meant to stop the cliff from collapsing are in danger of doing so themselves; several timber sleepers have rotted away and the walls lean at a precarious angle.

There’s been some planting in the past couple of years to try to stabilise the cliff face, but mostly it’s just sourgrass competing with daisies to see which weed gets the crown as most invasive.

Up the road a short distance Kitson Park’s getting a long-awaited makeover from the East Fremantle council, but it said it’d have to get back to the Herald about any plans to give Bicentennial Falls a fix.

by STEVE GRANT