Roe’d to Recovery
(a vision for the defunct Roe Road Reserve)
IMPORTANT planning decisions are being made about the section from North Lake Road to Healy Road.
What could the future look like?
There is a risk it will be developed mainly as housing.
However, we have the opportunity to conserve and grow a bush corridor for wildlife and for people as our legacy to future generations.
Make a submission to the Dept of Planning by January 20 at https://consultation. dplh.wa.gov.au/strategy-and-enagagement/roe-8-west-9-corridor-planning-study-draft-concept/)
Move over New York High Line.
The most amazing repurpose of a transport route is now open.
Just minutes away from the historic port of Walyalup/ Fremantle, begin your journey through time and space as you step into a precious cultural and natural trail that has survived through the millennia and now thanks to the vision of the community will live on.
The Beeliar Bidi* will take you through an experience of Western Australia’s ancient plants and animals while you walk in the footsteps of the oldest continuous culture on the earth.
From the waves to the wetlands the trail takes you from the beaches of the Indian Ocean through to wetlands that are the backbone of the natural wealth of the city of Perth.
Along the way you will walk through four different vegetation complexes with hundreds of species of plants.
The animals that call this area home include the adorable and incredibly ecologically important kwenda, the booyi – local freshwater turtle, and birds to see and hear to your heart’s content.
As you walk inland the spirit of the Waugal – Rainbow Serpent winds its way through the valleys of rows of ancient sand dunes creating two chains of wetlands that mark the natural and cultural landscape of southern Boorloo/Perth.
You are walking the well-trod path of local Indigenous groups as they moved across their country in harmony with the ebb and flow of the seasonal changes.
When you reach Walliabup/Bibra Lake you will find an immersive cultural experience at the Aboriginal Cultural Centre and everything you ever wanted to know about the incredible animals and plants of Western Australia at WA Wildlife and the Wetlands Centre Cockburn.
But you are not the only visitors to love these wetlands.
We have migratory birds from as far away as Siberia coming to eat the bugs in our mud as the lakes go through their annual drying.
It must be worth the trip!
And did I mention the three coffee shops to choose from?
Now, if you are up for more, head south onto the tramway trail…
* Please note the name Beeliar Bidi is just a place holder for a name that will be determined from consultation with Indigenous representatives and local community.
Dr Felicity Bairstow
Bibra Lake
Golden opportunity
THERE is great opportunity with the Cockburn Community Wildlife Corridor to do something extraordinary.
The community has shown the passion to save this place by incredible protests followed by rehabilitation work, now we need to make sure that work continues
The Wadjuk Noongar cultural connection to country and history of genocide could be acknowledged and showcased, and there is a chance to turn around the track record of ecological devastation in one of the most biodiverse places on the planet..
Other world cities started green belts in the post war era. London has over 30 per cent green spaces and a rewilding program. In constrast Cockburn and Fremantle have the lowest canopy cover of any suburbs in Perth (8 and 9 per cent respectively).
What is unique is we are part of a city that still retains small vestiges of globally significant vegetation, significant woodlands and wetlands and endangered species such as the black cockatoos.
We are in danger of losing these magnificent birds. However if we can reconnect we can save them.
At the end of last year the government officially threw out plans to save significant threatened ecological communities in the Perth peel region making community efforts to save these spaces more crucial than ever.
Our last patches of bush are green islands shrinking into a sea of concrete.
We must reverse this process. By linking Manning Park with the Beeliar wetlands the Cockburn Community Wildlife Corridor is a place where this can happen and show the rest of Perth what they should be doing.
Paddy Cullen
Save the Black Cockatoos
Glug glug
DUE to plummeting water tables all over the place, private bore water owners have been told to cut their water days from three days to two.
Why doesn’t someone just say what it really is: Overpopulation and the associated climate change byproduct from overpopulation activity.
Water wars and imminent human overpopulation collapse have not only been prophesied but scientifically acknowledged.
Brad Capes
Coolbellup