Bennett Brook is a

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

that runs from

Whiteman Park Whiteman Park is a bushland area located north of Perth, Western Australia. The park is in the suburb of Whiteman, in the Swan Valley in the upper reaches of the Swan River. It encompasses the source of Bennett Brook - an important place o ...

to the Swan River in Western Australia.

Overview

Bennett Brook's catchment area covers . Approximately half of the catchment area is covered by

and the Gnangara Pine Plantation. The rest of the catchment is urbanised, covering the suburbs of Ballajura, Beechboro, Bennett Springs, Kiara, Lockridge, Malaga,

Morley Morley may refer to: Places England * Morley, Norfolk, a civil parish * Morley, Derbyshire, a civil parish * Morley, Cheshire, a village * Morley, County Durham, a village * Morley, West Yorkshire, a suburban town of Leeds and civil parish * M ...

and

Noranda Noranda may refer to: *Noranda (mining company) * Noranda Caldera, an Archean caldera in Canada *Noranda, Western Australia Noranda is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located in the City of Bayswater. The suburb was named in 1977 after N ...

. The tributaries to the west are highly modified and partially underground. The tributaries to the north are mostly natural. Upstream areas only flow between August and November. Groundwater pumping from the

Gnangara Mound The Gnangara Mound is an area north of Perth, Western Australia where a large mound of sandy soil reaches an elevation of about . It stores about of fresh water, about one hundred times Perth's current annual water usage. It is currently the si ...

has made the flow lower than the natural flow. Downstream areas flow year round. Urbanisation has made the flow downstream higher than the natural flow, due to higher

surface runoff Surface runoff (also known as overland flow) is the flow of water occurring on the ground surface when excess rainwater, stormwater, meltwater, or other sources, can no longer sufficiently rapidly infiltrate in the soil. This can occur when th ...

from roads and houses.

Crossing

In the late 1930s the local authority, the Swan Road Board considered a bridge to cross the brook. In the 1980s, the status of the area relative to Indigenous concerns and environmental concerns made bridge making and other activity more restricted.

Fauna

Animals found in and around Bennett Brook include: * ''

Chelodina oblonga The oblong turtle (''Chelodina oblonga''), also known commonly as the narrow-breasted snake-necked turtle and the southwestern snake-necked turtle, is a species of turtle in the family Chelidae. The species is endemic to the southwestern part ...

'' – southwestern snake-necked turtle * '' Westralunio carteri'' – species of freshwater mussel * '' Isoodon obesulus'' – quenda or southern brown bandicoot * ''

Trichosurus vulpecula The common brushtail possum (''Trichosurus vulpecula'', from the Greek for "furry tailed" and the Latin for "little fox", previously in the genus ''Phalangista'') is a nocturnal, semiarboreal marsupial of the family Phalangeridae, native to Austr ...

'' – brush-tailed possum * ''

Hydromys chrysogaster The rakali (''Hydromys chrysogaster)'', also known as the rabe or water-rat, is an Australian native rodent first described in 1804. Adoption of the Aboriginal name Rakali is intended to foster a positive public attitude by Environment Australia ...

'' – water rat

Name

Bennett Brook is named after Matilda Bennett, the wife of

John Septimus Roe John Septimus Roe (8 May 1797 – 28 May 1878) was the first Surveyor-General of Western Australia. He was a renowned explorer, a member of Western Australia's legislative and executive councils for nearly 40 years, but also a participant in t ...

.New suburb of Bennett Springs
– City of Swan Media Release. Published 29 April 2011.

References

{{Rivers of Western Australia Swan River (Western Australia) Swan Coastal Plain Whiteman Park

Overview

Crossing

Fauna

Name

See also

References