The Spectacles Wetlands (

Noongar The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the so ...

: Djinining) is a

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

located in the eponymous suburb, south of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, the capital of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. It is part of

Beeliar Regional Park Beeliar Regional Park is a conservation park approximately south of the central business district in Perth, Western Australia, located within the Citys of Cockburn, Kwinana and Melville. The regional park is named after the indigenous Beel ...

. It consists of two distinct swamps, the Large Eye Swamp in the north and the Small Eye Swamp in the south. The wetland is also on the

City of Kwinana The City of Kwinana is a local government area of Western Australia. It covers an area of approximately 118 square kilometres in metropolitan Perth, and lies about 38 km south of Perth central business district, via the Kwinana Freew ...

heritage list.

History

The area of the

, with its freshwater lakes, was an important camping area and source of food for the Beeliar clan of the

Whadjuk Whadjuk, alternatively Witjari, are Noongar (Aboriginal Australian) people of the Western Australian region of the Perth bioregion of the Swan Coastal Plain. Name The ethnonym appears to derive from ''whad'', the Whadjuk word for "no". Countr ...

people from the

nation. A major trade route connecting the

Swan Swans are birds of the family (biology), family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the goose, geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form t ...

and

Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray) (Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta: ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river at extent. Its tributaries include five of the next six longest r ...

passed through the wetlands of what is now Beeliar Regional Park. European records of The Spectacles Wetlands date back to 1841, when the area was first surveyed by Thomas Watson. The Spectacles were part of the

Peel Estate The Peel Estate was an area of land in the south of Perth, Western Australia, predominantly in what is now the City of Kwinana, City of Rockingham and the Shire of Serpentine–Jarrahdale. The estate twice featured prominently in Western Australi ...

post-First World War

Group Settlement Scheme The Group Settlement Scheme was an assisted migration scheme which operated in Western Australia from the early 1920s. It was engineered by Premier of Western Australia, Premier James Mitchell (Australian politician), James Mitchell and followe ...

but, unlike the other wetlands of the estate, were not drained at the time. The

Peel Main Drain The Peel Main Drain is a drainage canal in the southern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. Construction of the canal commenced in 1920 to drain the wetlands in the area as part of the post-World War I Group Settlement Scheme at the Peel Esta ...

runs through the wetland and the supporting

Baldivis Tramway The Baldivis Tramway, also referred to as the Peel Estate Tramway or Peel Tramline, was a short-lived tramway, originally planned to be operating from Jandakot railway station to Karnup, in Western Australia. The line was constructed to suppo ...

run to the west of it. The wetland is now part of Beeliar Regional Park, being the southern-most component of the park, and a

Bush Forever Bush Forever is a Western Australian government initiative and plan, aimed at preserving a "comprehensive, adequate and representative" 10 percent of each vegetation complex on the Swan Coastal Plain within the Perth metropolitan region. Introduced ...

site. It has an area of and features include a Aboriginal Heritage Trail around the larger, northern, wetland, and the Biara Boardwalk Trail on the western side of it. Public access to the wetlands is through the carpark on McLaughlain Road, on the western side of The Spectacles. The access road on the eastern side, Spectacles Drive, has been closed off. A large part of the wetlands is under private ownership by

Alcoa Alcoa Corporation (an acronym for Aluminum Company of America) is a Pittsburgh-based industrial corporation. It is the world's eighth-largest producer of aluminum. Alcoa conducts operations in 10 countries. Alcoa is a major producer of primary ...

but open to the public. Alcoa purchased the land for industrial purposes and as a dump site but its wetland nature meant it was unsuitable for such a purpose. Through the same evaluation it also became clear that the area was of high conservation value. On 13 May 1998, The Spectacles Wetlands were added to the Town of Kwinana, now

, heritage list.

Flora

In common with other areas of the regional park, the upland of The Spectacles is an area of low woodland and forest of eucalypts, casuarina and banksia, consisting of

jarrah ''Eucalyptus marginata'', commonly known as jarrah, djarraly in Noongar language and historically as Swan River mahogany, is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a tree with roug ...

, ''

Corymbia calophylla ''Corymbia calophylla'', commonly known as marri, is a species of flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae and is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It is a tree or mallee with rough bark on part or all of the trunk, lance-shaped ad ...

'', candlestick banksia, firewood banksia and western sheoak. In the wetland component of The Spectacles, the vegetation consists of swamp paperbark, stout paperbark, '' Melaleuca teretifolia'' and

flooded gum Flooded gum may refer to the following tree species: *''Eucalyptus grandis'', from eastern Australia *''Eucalyptus rudis'', from Western Australia *''Eucalyptus tereticornis ''Eucalyptus tereticornis'', commonly known as forest red gum, blue gum ...

Sedges The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' wit ...

in the form of ''

Isolepis ''Isolepis'' is a cosmopolitan genus of sedge containing around 70 species. ''Isolepis'' is found in cool tropical and temperate climates often in Africa and Australasia. ''Isolepis'' was first described by prolific botanist Robert Brown in 181 ...

'' are also present at the southern wetland of The Spectacles; those are rare.

References

{{Reflist

External links

* Parks and Wildlife Service
Beeliar Regional Park
* Urban Bushland Council WA Inc.
Beeliar Regional Park
Wetlands of Western Australia Beeliar Regional Park