Bibool

This section is at the lowest point of the Beeliar Wetlands. It is a unique wet forest and woodland ecosystem of bibool (paperbarks), moitch (flooded gums) and banksias. Here the pale grey Bassendean sands are overlain with organic layers in a complex system that is unusual on the Swan Coastal Plain. Within the Bibra Lake complex, Roe Swamp, to the south is the only wetland with a spongilitic peat basin. The surrounding sumpland supports a diverse array of groundwater dependent vegetation. Rare priority 1 flora species like Dampiera triloba have been recorded nearby.

The Bibra Lakes area has mythological and cultural connection to the original Beeliar people and has continuing significance to all Nyungar peoples. Multiple Aboriginal heritage sites are registered in the richly diverse land between Walliabup and Coolbellup, one close to the corner of Hope Road and Bibra Drive. The most recent archaeological study commissioned by the Rehabilitating Roe 8 project, confirmed the presence of buried stone artefacts and charcoal, estimating that millions lie beneath the surface around the whole lake area. Dating of materials attests to use by Nyungar ancestors for up to 10,000 years.

Anniseed boronia (Boronia crenulata) 

During makuru (one of the Nyungar Six Seasons), the lower section between Moodjar and Bibool is frequently flooded. Insects skitter on pools of dark water fringed by swamp peppermint and occasional aniseed boronia, sometimes accompanied by moaning frog calls. Blue ringtail damselfly may be seen preying on the smaller insects. High power lines mirror an access road that traverses a wetland once stretching from near Murdoch University to Walliabup (Bibra Lake). Immediately to the south, ancient swamp banksias have their roots in the damp soil and amongst the typha reeds of Roe Swamp, turtles, frogs and quenda find refuge, though stalked by tiger snakes in the sedge boundaries. The swamp harriers cruising above have plenty of choice.

The story of the Roe 8 protest

To the north massive flooded-gums give way to the bibool (stout paperbarks) of Melaleuca swamp, now severed by Farrington Road and the site of a community protest in 1984. Further back in time, English colonist George Robb’s 1830 Cockburn Sound Location grant started in Hamilton Hill and encompassed all of North Lake Reserve to a boundary close to Bibra Drive. A small block on this eastern edge, and north of Melaleuca swamp, was one of the earliest farmed by European settlers in the district. In the 1850s ticket-of-leave blacksmith James Baker cut timber in this area; his descendants still live in Cockburn. To the south, Chinese market gardeners leased blocks in the fertile swamp soil. Hi Lory supplied vegetables to Fremantle into the 1920s. Soil maps show that under the surface, the lobes of the ancient wetland are still connected, water flows still dictated by buried and stranded basins.

Swamp Harrier (Circus approximans) (Photo: J. Baas)

Women’s site protest banner, Roe Swamp 2017. (Photo: D.Brady)

North Lake Reserve is a Bush Forever site, a representative set aside to preserve vegetation communities on the Swan Coastal Plain. Nevertheless, Section 8 of the Roe Highway, planned in the 1950s, was to span this unique wetland on pylons. Clearing for the Roe Highway was well advanced when in February 2017 bulldozers entered this final section of the wetland from Bibra Drive. Tree sitters hidden amongst the paperbarks had tried to delay the work, but on the 5th of February community protestors were permitted to walk a last time through the swamp from the east toward Moodjar and then on the 9th of February the paperbarks were bulldozed. On this cold and rainy day, women sang a lament for the loss of a sacred site for Nyungar women’s business.

Following cessation of the Roe 8 project in March 2017, fencing and weed control by Rehabilitating Roe 8 has enhanced the conditions for regrowth. Numerous flooded-gums and thickets of pondil (spearwood) appeared in black soil in the years after clearing. The ancient, resilient wetland continues to support life through the mysterious workings of its subterranean layers, a source of water, biodiversity and hope.

Caption: Protestors walk through Bibool site before clearing for Roe 8 February 2017 (Photo: D. Brady)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

Rehabilitating Roe 8 acknowledges the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of this nation. We acknowledge that the Rehabilitating Roe 8 project area is Wadjuk country and pay respect to Elders and all Nyungar people, past, present and future. We are committed to honouring Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ unique cultural and spiritual relationships to the land, waters and seas and their rich contribution to society.