NORTHBRIDGE Common’s Peter Veitch says the group’s latest “rewilding” projects are transforming everyday verges and laneways into small oases of nature and community life.
“Last Saturday we had about 35 people, I think, turn up,” Mr Veitch says of a walkthrough of recent projects.
“We started in Hyde Park, and then as a group, walked to the three different sites,” he said.
“In those three sites we had five verges that we had rewilded earlier in the year.”
• The Northbridge Common team celebrate the rewilded nook on Chatsworth Road. Photo courtesy Northbridge Common
“We planted it all at the end of May, and we waited till now intentionally because we planted just tube stock — really tiny — so we waited till now so that there was some growth, and plenty of plants had grown and flowered.
“The kangaroo paws were in flower, and a few of the other plants were in flower, so it just brought it to life a little bit more instead of just looking at a whole lot of root stock.”
The three rewilded locations stretch across “two verges on Chatsworth Road which are next to each other, two verges on Lindsay Street which are next to each other, and then one verge on Brisbane Street, close down towards Robertson Park.”
“The areas are about 20sqm, maybe 30sqm,” Mr Veitch said.
• Old disposable cameras were sent out for people to snap anything that caught their eye in Northbridge.
“One of the conditions when we put it out to the community to nominate the verge was that the verge needed to be big enough to accommodate street furniture.”
“They’ve all got some brightly painted logs — either stepping logs or lengths of logs that have been turned on their end so they’re vertically sticking out of the ground — and one also has a brightly painted bench seat which is on Chatsworth, looking down a side street.
City views
“When you sit on the bench seat, you look straight down the side street at city views. It’s a fantastic spot.
“The one on Lindsay Street — we had a couple of the paperbarks on the verge, and so one of them was the perfect opportunity to hang a swing.”
• Workshop participants rethink Lock Lane as a vibrant gathering place, rather than a dangerous rat run. Photo by Miles Noel Studio
Given the tizz some councils have got themselves over the humble verge swing, he says the City of Vincent took a pragmatic approach, funding all the work and assessing the group’s plans.
“By approving the street furniture and what we put on there — because technically the verges are council land and therefore public — their liability insurance covers that land, so they need to be comfortable that what we put on there is appropriate. So they signed off on all of it.
“We had three aims,” Mr Veitch said.
“One is around rewilding — getting rid of dead grass or non-native plants and putting in native plants, to improve things from a water-wise and biodiversity perspective.
“The second aim is to provide opportunities for people to connect — that’s why we put in a bench seat, the swing and the logs.
“All of the residents where we’ve done the rewilding have commented around the number of people that stop and comment on it, or they often find kids or people sitting on the seat, people taking photos of themselves on the swing.
“The third aim is that by having very brightly painted furniture, it creates a visual cue at the curb when traffic goes past — and that slows the traffic.”
“It’s anecdotal,” he said.
“Chatsworth is a good example — that’s a rat run — and the residents have said that even though there are cars parked along there, they’ve noticed cars slowing down.
“Lindsay Street has two curbs right near a bit of a dog-leg, and as cars come up to it, the residents have also noticed that people go slower there.”
• Oranges, anyone? Another shot from the Take 5 collection.
Mr Veitch said ultimately they’d love every verge in the city to be rethought, and says owners can do it off their own back, or get some help if mobility’s an issue through Vincent’s Adopt-a-Verge program.
“We did the five sites this year; next year we’ve got an agreement and funding to do a block of six in a row on Lincoln Street,” he said.
“The City of Vincent has also just been successful in getting a grant under the Streets Alive funding round… They’re also looking at removing a lot of the paving or hardscape and reducing that down so that we can do more rewilding [on Lincoln].”
He says pimped verges can’t be a replacement for the umpteen trees felled for backyard infill, but “every little bit counts”.
“I talked to someone recently who lives opposite Hyde Park — he talked about a tortoise walking out of the lake … and laying eggs in his front garden.
“Another person on Palmerston Street… said that one day they found a bobtail inside their house.
“So creating those little spots — they’re still there, and every little bit helps to increase those numbers.
“Having verges where birds or insects are able to hop along, moving between patches, makes a difference.”
• Someone from Take 5 ready for a regular morning dip?
Mr Veitch said the group was “currently closing out a project called Take 5 , which was about circulating the old-fashioned disposable cameras and getting people to snap bits of their ‘burb that they responded to.
“Out of that we got 400 great photos.
He says they put up a big banner in Stuart Street Reserve a couple of days ago to promote the project.
“And then we will also use those photos for an event that will take place in a laneway in February… between Bar Love and Peasant’s Paradise, and so the name of that event is called Lover’s Paradise.”
Engage
“It will be a gathering showcasing the art, and an opportunity for people to come together in the evening. There’ll be food that’s provided and some drink provided from Bar Love and Peasant’s Paradise, because a big part of North Perth Common is about how we work with local business to build our community.”
“It’s to engage with the community and to show local faces and local people and local buildings,” he said.
“It creates a feeling of connection to community because you see the buildings or you see the parks, or you see some individuals that you might have passed in the street and so it feels like ‘this is where I belong’.”
The group also has scored $100,000 to do a trial project in Lock Lane.
“Lock Lane is the laneway behind the Rechabite and Mechanics Institute,” he said.
“It’s a laneway that typically feels like a utilities and rubbish bin laneway, but a lot of businesses along there do actually use it so at night time there are people accessing that area.
• A rewilded Chatsworth Road verge. Photo by Miles Noel Studio
“Unfortunately at night time is also when it comes up on the taxi’s Google Maps as the quickest way to go, and so you get a taxi or a private rideshare going down there, and it’s a very tight laneway.
“So you’ve got people and cars interacting when they shouldn’t be.
“Lock Lane is around making that laneway a ‘place’ so it’s somewhere where you go.
“The intent is to keep it wild so not to gentrify it.
“Some of the opportunities we’ve got there is around creating an entry zone to the laneway so it’s clear for a vehicle that they’re about to go into a ‘place’.
“If they’re going to drive down there they’re going into a place and so that creates second thoughts about whether to go down there or if you go down there go slow, because it’s a place and there are people.”
by STEVE GRANT