Gibbs Road Reserve rehabilitation after recent fires

The City of Armadale’s Bushcare Management team is currently undertaking rehabilitation works at Gibbs Road Reserve, which was recently devastated by the wildfire that burnt through the Jandakot Regional Park and residential property in Forrestdale and suburbs in the City of Cockburn.

The Reserve, which is vested in the City of Armadale, is located in a pristine 12.5ha Banksia Woodland in Forrestdale and forms part of the Jandakot Regional Park. The Reserve is an environmentally sensitive area and provides an important food source for species of threatened and endangered Black Cockatoos.

During the recent fire, around 90% of the Reserve was severely burnt and lost the entire understorey of vegetation with only charred Banksia remaining visible.

Mayor Henry Zelones said many Australian native plants can survive fire and will re-shoot or re-sprout after fire and continue to grow, however Banksia trees are killed by hot fires.

“The Banksia trees re-grow via seed and it will take around 5 - 8 years for the tree to reach maturity and produce any seed, so the rehabilitation of Gibbs Road Reserve will take a number of years.

“The Reserve will require intensive weed control and revegetation and the Bushcare team will provide specialist care to the Reserve to facilitate the optimum recovery program through on-ground works.

“The crew will take part in a monitoring program that has been set up to document the regeneration of the vegetation post-fire and this will play an integral role in the rehabilitation of Gibbs Road Reserve,” said Mayor Zelones.

The Bushcare crew work closely with many reserve custodians, friends groups and community groups throughout the year to look after the 190 hectares of remnant bushland in 48 reserves under the City’s stewardship.

In addition, the City has management responsibility for two large regional bushland areas – Armadale Settlers Common and Bungendore Park.

Several of these bushland areas are home to threatened ecological communities and areas of declared rare flora.

The Bushcare team are also responsible for the active management of weeds within the City of Armadale, such as Cotton Bush and undertake revegetation, weed mapping and control, fencing and sign installation, and vegetation monitoring throughout the year.

They also work closely with local Volunteer Fire Brigades throughout the year to implement mosaic burning - a system of using patches of small, low-intensity fires to sweep through the understorey of the bush.