‘LIL’ is a Spearwood resident and regular user of Manning Park. Because the debate about the future of Manning Park and its contentious trails, we’ve agreed to use a pseudonym.     

MANNING PARK is special because so little of what it contains remains elsewhere. 

In an increasingly urban landscape, it offers the chance to walk, run or ride through native bushland, encounter wildlife, pause for a moment above the coast and take in the vast Indian Ocean, and connect with the area’s history, all within a single reserve. Many of us have a favourite corner of the park, a place we return to time and again. 

That affection is exactly why the debate about trails matters.

But what makes the park so valuable also makes it vulnerable. 

Any one trail or informal route may seem harmless, yet the cumulative effect of rising visitation, new tracks and ongoing disturbance is slowly eroding the reserve’s ecological integrity. 

Together, these pressures fragment habitat, damage vegetation and reduce the bushland’s capacity to support wildlife.

Each small cut is easy to excuse. The sum of them is not.

The long and passionate debate over the park’s trails shows how much the community cares, and that is something to be proud of. 

But popularity, or enthusiasm for a particular recreational pursuit, cannot decide how a reserve is managed. 

If we genuinely care about this place, we must be willing to channel some of that love into supporting the actions needed to protect it.

That starts with respecting what Manning Park is for. 

A substantial part of it is Bush Forever Site 247, and the reserve is set aside for Parks and Recreation under the Metropolitan Region Scheme. 

It exists to protect regionally significant environmental and cultural values while providing for appropriate community use. 

Recreation has a place there, but it is not the only purpose, and where the two collide, protection has to come first.

The values at stake are real.

The reserve provides habitat for threatened and locally significant species whose future depends on healthy bushland. 

It supports stands of Redheart, a distinctive tree now seldom encountered across much of the developed Swan Coastal Plain. 

Native quail shelter in the understorey beneath them, and rainbow bee-eaters and other birdlife find refuge among the remaining bushland. 

These are not just entries on a survey list. 

They are part of the character and spirit of the park, and a reminder of the rich landscape that once stretched across the coastal plain and now survives only in fragments.

That is why I support the Trail Management Plan, including the closure of some trails. 

Closing a track will upset some users, but plenty of people who love this park want it done, and where the environmental cost outweighs the benefit, they deserve to be heard.

The plan’s merits should be judged not by how many trails remain open, but by whether it will leave Manning Park healthier, more resilient and better protected in the years ahead.

The risk now is that Council fails to adopt the plan. 

Without it, there is no framework to manage trails, no way to close and rehabilitate the damage already done, and no check on the pressure that visitors, informal routes and ongoing disturbance place on the reserve. 

Left unmanaged, Manning Park will be loved to death. 

The very qualities that draw people here are those most vulnerable to growing human pressure, and once habitat is lost, mature bushland degraded or heritage diminished, they are rarely recovered in our lifetimes.

Manning Park will only be protected by a plan that puts conservation first, and by the willingness of those who love it to give up a favourite track so the bushland can recover. 

Do that, and future generations will inherit a reserve that is richer, healthier and better protected than the one we enjoy today.

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Issue back in ‘27

PUBLIC consultation on the City of Cockburn’s proposed Manning Park trails rehabilitation plan has closed this week, with a further round of stakeholder engagement scheduled for 2027.

The plan follows a trails audit which identified 126 tracks across the park and recommends retaining 56 while closing 66 for rehabilitation.

The proposal has proved contentious, with debate over the future of existing informal mountain-bike trails and the possibility of establishing a formal trail network.

Council deferred adoption of the rehabilitation plan in June, seeking further consultation on proposed trail classifications and closures. The City has said no closures will be implemented until Council considers the consultation outcomes and makes a further decision.

An emerging themes report and targeted stakeholder consultation are planned for 2027, before the matter returns to Council.