Bushmead Reserve
Bankia attenuata in Bushmead.
Photo credit: Fiona Audcent-Ross.
Wonderful bushland on our doorsteps
Bushmead’s bushland isn’t just beautiful, it’s also very important, containing critically endangered ecological communities within its 185 hectares. An ecological community is a grouping of plants, animals and microorganisms that naturally occur together in a particular habitat – combined they have special biodiversity and conservation value. Species within each ecological community interact with and depend on each other, e.g., for food or shelter. A TEC (threatened ecological community) is an ecological community that is at serious risk of being lost.
Bushmead Reserve consists primarily of two TECs and both are categorised as critically
endangered:
- SCP20c – Shrublands and woodlands of the eastern Swan Coastal Plain
- SCP20a – Banksia attenuata woodlands over species-rich dense shrublands
Conserving critically endangered TECs, like ours, is important to protect Western Australia’s world-renowned biodiversity.
Bushmead is known to be the home, or to be visited by, six conservation-significant animal species: three species of black cockatoos (Carnaby’s, forest red-tailed, and Baudin’s), red-tailed phascogale, peregrine falcon, and quenda (southern brown bandicoot).
Bushmead’s Trails
The 273-hectare Bushmead site was sold by the Department of Defence to property developer Cedar Woods in 2010 and the first Bushmead blocks were sold in 2017. Trails works are ongoing and, when complete, there will be approximately 12 km of walking trails in Bushmead Reserve. Trails that are popular with residents are the Battalion Trail and the Kadina Trail.
Battalion Trail
Bushmead’s Battalion Trail is a 2-km trail with signage located on the previous site of the Bushmead Rifle Range (est. 1915), in the northern section of Bushmead Reserve. The rifle range served as a crucial training ground for Australian troops, particularly during World War I and the interwar period.
Battalion Trail starts at the corner of Learmonth Rd and Montague Grange.
Troopers marching at Bushmead camp (10 Australian Light Horse)
Photo credit: Australian Army Museum of Western Australia
1928 Soldiers firing on Bushmead Rifle Range
Photo credit: Australian Army Museum of Western Australia
Kadina Trail
Kadina Trail is another popular route for walkers and joggers, especially on Saturday mornings when lots of locals take part in Park Run. There are many entrance points to Kadina Trail, including at the Giant Play park at the end of Leeuwin Boulevard.
The north-eastern boundary of Bushmead Reserve marks the previous location of the Upper Darling Range Railway, completed in 1891. This railway helped transport goods and personnel, playing a vital role in the region’s development, until its closure in mid-1949. Bushmead’s trail network includes the Poison Gully Train Crash Site, the location of WA’s first major railway accident.
Poison Gully sign by Cedar Woods
Photo credit: Fiona Audcent-Ross