Journal of the Claise Brook Catchment Group

We're always happy to welcome new members to our group and especially young members with lots of years involvement ahead of them. We were therefore delighted to hear of the birth of Jessie Jane to member Julie Mackay.

Felicity Morel-Edniebrown thanked the Claise Brook Catchment Group for assisting her research into how the former swamps of Perth affected land subdivision and the placement of roads in the early settlement of Perth. Felicity was the final speaker at the Northbridge History Studies Day on Saturday 12th May. She also spoke about how a wetland has been re-created in Robertson Park which was formerly Lake Henderson. Her presentation will be available later this year on the Northbridge History website www.northbridgehistory.wa.gov.au

The map below shows proposed roads skirting wetlands on Hillman's 1838 map of Perth.

The photo below shows the pure white sand which marked the edges of an old wetland, visible during current excavations. This site, on the corner of Beaufort and Newcastle Streets used to be the south-eastern edge of Lake Thomson. The sand next to wetlands was white from thousands of years of being washed clean.

On Saturday Joe, Anne, Jenny, Greg and Warren weeded around the wetland, but Dudley and Chris tackled some stubborn weeds in the adjacent lawn. These types of weeds, if left to flower, can result in a great deal of seed blowing into the "bushland" around the wetland which will then be a weed problem when the seeds germinate in coming years.

The new log is a picturesque feature beside the wetland which received some water in the heavy rains at the end of April. The log will provide a perch for birds, habitat for fungi and food for insects as the wood slowly breaks down and is consumed. Click here to read about the wetland at Robertson Park and here for details about the next working bee.

Piazza Nanni, Saturday 5th May 2007.

A checkup and weeding at Piazza Nanni found everything flourishing. We will ask the City of Perth to provide a few plants so we can fill in some of the gaps. The final report and maintenance plan was delivered to the East Perth Redevelopment Authority and the City of Perth in May. To read more about this project or to download a copy of the final report click here.

The first plant sale for 2007 attracted lots of customers with the CBCG members flat out handling the sales desk while the Town of Vincent horticultural staff provided advice on plant selection.

Customers carried carried their plants away in all sorts of containers, all sorts of vehicles. We were too busy to take any photos during the sale but here are two CBCG members who assisted at the sale going home tired but happy at the end. More

Tours of Point Fraser. Saturday 21st April 2007.

CBCG members did tours of Point Fraser on the hour, every hour during the afternoon of Saturday 21st April. Tours included an explanation of the original landforms in the area, how urbanisation has affected water movement and water quality flowing into the Swan River, the constructed wetland which cleans stormwater runoff from East Perth, using nature's example to stabilize the foreshore, managing water movement across the site and a 'green' carpark. More

"I really enjoyed the tour. It is so impressive. I do lots of short historical tours when I'm on holiday and this is up with the best of them in my opinion" Lyn

"We had a great day at Point Fraser on Saturday. We were flat out doing tours and people just LOVE IT down there. The part people really react strongly to is the carpark – I think the notion that a carpark can include vegetation and look nice is really mind-blowing, but also people start to remember that in their grandparent’s day most driveways had grass or plants down the middle between two lines of pavers. There are so many things to talk about that we had trouble keeping the tours to one hour." Sally

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