Lessons about trees’ value not learnt

IT APPEARS one of Perth’s last large remaining tracts of bushland is set to be bulldozed.

For 14 years, residents from the north-eastern suburb of Kiara have campaigned tirelessly to convince politicians to save the flora and fauna that have until now survived Perth’s urban sprawl.

The 14.6ha block of land, at the corner of Morley Drive East and Bottlebrush Drive, is home to reptiles, birds and kangaroos and importantly banksias that are a food source for the endangered Carnaby’s black cockatoo.

However, as much as 70 per cent will be turned over to housing after Planning Minister John Day approved the land’s rezoning to residential.

The leaders of today will one day be held up to ridicule for destroying trees when they should have remembered their Year 7 science class about how trees keep our air clean.

During the past 10 years, politicians have talked about protecting the environment and hammered home to all the environmental benefits of rainwater tanks, solar hot water systems, water-conserving showerheads and using public transport.

These measures will count for little without bushland and tree preservation.

Urban infill is an important tool to limit metropolitan sprawl in Perth and to ensure everyone has access to transport, schools and facilities.

However, within metres of Kiara bushland is an under-used shopping centre with a vast car park. There is already electricity at that Eden Hill site.

That would be a prime site for another housing development and a far better option than the Kiara bushland and its precious trees.

What everyone else is thinking

Kirsten Tullis

08/05/2010

You can contact me on 0408 900 235 - I am one of Save Kiara Bushland's members.

An excellent article by Karen.

Blacktivist

05/05/2010

I live in Lockridge and would like to support the Kiara Bushland Group Ive tried to find a contact for them but have had no luck yet. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Community Minded

03/05/2010

We must fight to keep this area the way it is.

Jane

30/04/2010

Urban bushland is a window on the past and a vital refuge. Once destroyed, we can never get it back. How do we change our culture that values the dollar over the natural environment? As a former campaigner I can advise that letters to decision makers can make a difference. The more personally written letters (not emails, not photocopied form letters) to decision makers can get an issue up and running. Get kids and schools involved, get credible radio stations involved, get scientists (WA Museum, National Trust, botanists, herpetologists, avifauna people involved) ... AND FIGHT THIS!

Margaret

I agree we must not only keep trees and bush that is in areas now but we must plant more. What benefit is it to chop everything down, kill everybit o fwildlife when without nature we become withdrawn, ill, and create a drain on our health system.
Let us remind the councillors and the politicians that we remember this type of wanton destruction and will show that at the ballot box.

L A

28/04/2010

Excellent article and comments. It's only when you stand inside the bushland in Kiara that you can truely appreciate it. Go down in the mornings, stand still, and it's like being in an avery. The birds are all feeding and singing different tunes. They fly past you. I've never seen anything like it before. You look down, notice you're standing by little orchids popping out of the soil. The banksia's are stunning at this time of year. Abundant pretty little delicate purple flowers on bushes. Small bright yellow wattle flowers are scattered about. The Kiara bushland changes throughout the year, there's always something flowering, making it a birds paradise.

Tim Swinden

The casual, haphazard way Perth is developed never ceases to amaze me. We have all these layers of planning bureaucracy and yet time after time they seem to get it horribly wrong creating some of the most soul destroying urban settings in what is a naturally wonderful site.

I know of a site that is going to wipe out an entire forest of trees simply because they are rooting the parking lot. These trees have created a wonderful micro environment right in the heart of metropolitan Perth, also providing beauty and shade for humans. Everyone can still park without serious hazard, no one has ever tripped on the rooting, other cities like Melbourne would just re-tar and live with the slight bumps, valuing the beauty but in Perth the trees must go because the Perth way is to wipe out living beauty in service to easy concrete convenience.

naia

27/04/2010

I agree, Karen, and it is not only trees but a whole community of biodiversity that is under threat. Its proximity to the river and Bennet Brook wetlands makes it all the more important as a wildlife corridor. High density housing adjacent to transport and activity nodes is more appropriate and sustainable than cramming in more of the same mediocre lots that can't even support one significant tree each. If the government was serious about reducing the environmental impact of housing, black tiled roofing would already be illegal. The banksias you mention are very vulnerable and suffer rapid decline when soil is disturbed or phytophthera introduced. Indeed they are worth saving.

Phillip Kuhne

I was one that protested against the destruction of this patch of flora and fauna habitat, and still beleive and always will that ignorance , greed and power have taken over.