A PROPOSAL to amend the metropolitan regional scheme to rezone land, including Bush Forever – and land once owned by the Whiteman and Day families – to urban has concerned some residents, who say there has been minimum effort to inform the public about the proposal.

The Western Australian Planning Commission (WAPC) is seeking public comment on a proposal to transfer four parcels of land in the City of Swan under the proposed Brabham and Dayton urban precincts metropolitan region scheme amendment 1421.

According to the Have your say page on the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage website the first parcel of land is about 11.94ha in Brabham, which if the amendment is approved would change from parks and recreation to urban and remove the Bush Forever 200 designation over about 1.22ha.

The second land parcel is about 5.11ha of land in Brabham, which would change from public purposes – special uses reservation to urban deferred.

The third parcel of land is about 2.79ha in Brabham and Dayton from the public purposes special uses reservation to urban and the fourth is about 6363sqm in Brabham from the primary regional roads reservation to urban deferred.

Former Swan councillor and West Swan resident Jan Zack said ecological linkage 32 that was supposed to link Bush Forever 200, on the former Caversham airbase, to Whiteman Park had been terminally severed by the burgeoning urban development and infrastructure of Brabham.

She sent Echo News a picture of where an ecological link was supposed to be located.

“The congestion is obvious (there’s) no place for native fauna amongst this array of urban infrastructure,’’ she said.

“Planners and developers totally ignored the ecological linkage that has been in place since 2003 despite using it in almost every document to enhance their green credentials.

“It also plays a prominent role in underpinning the City of Swan’s environmental policies.

“A large resource enhancement wetland existed at the junction of Youle-Dean Road and Lord Street but this has since been reduced in size, modified and alienated by urban development and the road interchange that connects Youle-Dean Road to Drumpellier Drive.

“Everything has converged on this location, the roads, the rail line, the entrance to the park, overpasses and underpasses, the new Whiteman Railway Station and access to a large carpark to service the railway station.

“There couldn’t be a worse place for the regional ecological linkage to be situated.

“It cannot fulfill its function as a biodiversity corridor in its present location.’’

She said Lot 94, currently out for public comment to rezone to urban, was part of the park but became isolated when Drumpellier Drive was constructed.

“It is still zoned parks and recreation in the MRS and despite it being former farmland it is still home to about 100 trees, some well over 40 years old.

“As the government, through its departments and agencies, have extinguished the connection of regional ecological linkage 32 to Whiteman Park, it is beholden on it to recreate this connection through other means.

“The most obvious, and perhaps the only solution, is to redirect the ecological corridor through Lot 94 which aligns with the western boundary of Bush Forever 200 and then west into Whiteman Park.

“This would require wildlife bridges over the roads and rail similar to those constructed over Tonkin Highway.

“It would also require the rehabilitation of Lot 94 and a corridor through the south eastern section of the park to Horse Swamp as both these areas are degraded.

“Despite this there are still mature trees existing in both areas which could form the genesis of a wildlife corridor to match the original connection destroyed by development.’’

Consultation on the proposed amendment, which opened on July 6 closes on August 16.

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