About Our Foreshore
The City of Melville features 18km of river foreshore around the Swan and Canning Rivers. The City of Melville foreshore stretches from Petra Street Bicton in the West to Bateman Park Brentwood in the East. The area ranges from narrow grassed areas to substantial conservation reserves.
Water Birds
Our foreshore reserves provide habitat and feeding grounds for a large number of water birds, including the Black Swan. Some of these birds are migratory flying from the northern hemisphere and northern Australia to nest or feed at certain times of the year.
For more information on birds found locally see the City of Melville’s Bird Watching Guide.
Foreshore Management
Because of development and the impact from various urban factors, these foreshore areas differ in condition from excellent to poor.
The major problems facing the City along the foreshore are:
For more information on foreshore condition, restoration and stabilisation works see the City of Melville Foreshore Restoration Strategy Review and Final Report.
Foreshore Projects
Below is a list of our current foreshore projects occurring in the City of Melville. For more information please contact City of Melville on 9364 0666.
Foreshore Stabilisation Project- Blackwall Reach Parade
In line with upgrades to the footpath along Blackwall Reach Parade, Bicton, areas between Braunton Street and Beach Street on the foreshore side will be revegetated and stabilised in the footprint of the old footpath. Matting over exposed soil will be done in March 2020, with planting to be undertaken in winter 2020.
These works are being staged in line with the footpath upgrades, and additional sections of the foreshore along Blackwall Reach Parade will be undertaken in subsequent years. This project is being conducted to ensure the bank is stabilised and does not suffer from additional erosion after the new footpath is installed.
Weed removal and Stabilisation of Bateman Park Foreshore
The City of Melville will be undertaking a grant project in conjunction with the Department of Parks and Wildlife Riverbank Program. The City was awarded funding to remove woody weeds which are currently invading the foreshore between Spinaway Crescent and Brentwood Avenue, Brentwood, and replacing them with native trees and sedges.
The project is being undertaken to improve the condition of existing foreshore vegetation, increase natural recruitment and increase foreshore resilience against erosive pressures. This work will follow on from weed control and revegetation works in the adjacent sites around the Brentwood Main Drain and Bateman foreshore areas. It will reduce weed re-intrusion into these sites and further downstream, enabling improvements in habitat, biodiversity, water filtration and amenity values along the entire area of Bull Creek foreshore.
Removal of weed species such as Japanese Peppers, Palm trees and Chinese Apple trees was conducted in 2019, with revegetation works to be undertaken in winter 2020.