FAQs

The project areas have been defined along the foreshore. The team has prepared draft Foreshore Concept Plans identifying initiatives to help restore the foreshore over the next 5-10 years as funding becomes available.

To ensure that the foreshore is not designed in isolation, the consultant team have also considered the broader area of each reserve and how a future design could look for each entire site through draft Site Master Plans. 

We are asking you to provide feedback primarily on the draft Foreshore Concept Plans along the foreshore edge, as this is within the sphere of influence for the project. 

We have also asked for some feedback on the draft Site Master Plans to help guide the City of Bayswater on their future planning for these areas.

Of the three sites, the Tranby Reserve and Bath Street Reserve site has funding allocated to move through to the next stage of the process. The Concept Plan will moves through a detailed design phase in December 2024 and January 2025. Following this funding is available to implement construction of foreshore stabilisation treatments at Tranby Reserve.

Implementation at the remaining two sites will be subject to future funding being realised. The Foreshore Concepts have been designed with the timeframe of 5-10 years in mind.

As outlined on the DBCA website, foreshore restoration is about habitat protection and foreshore management. Waterways support a wide array of important habitats. These include open water, sand shallows, tidal mudflats, tidal samphire marshes, fringing sedges and rushes, fringing woodlands, submerged macrophytes, seagrass and macroalgae, riffles and pools, marine intertidal zones, woody debris and interconnected wetlands.

Artificial structures (e.g. jetties, groynes and posts) provide additional habitat.

Natural disturbance events such as fires, floods and storms often impact these habitats, which can recover through regeneration and recolonisation by species spreading from nearby areas. However, if the scale of disturbances is too great or where multiple threatening processes exist simultaneously, species and communities may be affected, and biodiversity may decline.

Processes that continue to pose a threat to habitats and biodiversity in the Riverpark include:

• Development pressure
• Water quality changes
• Erosion     
• Diminished flow
• Climate change
• Invasive plants and animals

DBCA aims to minimise the impacts of these stressors and protect habitat by addressing water quality and ecological health, managing development pressure, ensuring adequate environmental flow and responding to climate change. It partners with foreshore land managers to improve habitat and reduce erosion pressure and invasive weeds through improved foreshore management.

These locations have been identified as priority locations within the City's 10 Year Foreshore Plan. 

Each site is unique in its own right however each has a significant need for restoration of the foreshore, this includes:

• repairing and mitigating erosion due to waves, boat, tide and foot traffic
• improving riverbank stability and shoreline infrastructure
• rehabilitation of degraded vegetation and endemic riparian species
• improving native species habitat 
• planning for significant weather events such as storms and flooding
• improving community connection to nature 
• improving access to the river for recreational uses and conservation

Note that addressing car parking at each site is outside of the scope of this project.

The consultant has undertaken a comprehensive desktop review of available data such as management plans, policy and strategies, previous project documentation in addition to in depth project research and investigation that has included:

• uses and user groups
• events and venues
• commercial occupants and facilities 
• cultural heritage and registered sites
• historical imagery, plans, land use
• site and surrounding context
• existing public infrastructure and amenity
• vegetation
• topography
• contamination
• flood mapping
• land tenure
• future development
• existing and future services
• maintenance procedures

The project is jointly funded by the City via its annual Foreshore Improvement and Riverbank Restoration programs and the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions via its Riverbank Funding Program. Information about the Riverbank program can be found here.

The Riverbank Program aims to protect and enhance the Swan and Canning River foreshores. Its objectives include:

• To protect and enhance riverbanks and shorelines to mitigate threats to environmental, recreational, aesthetic or cultural values;
• To protect, enhance and manage fringing native vegetation and habitat; and
• To improve enjoyment of the foreshore by addressing risk to public amenity values, infrastructure and the environment.

The consultant team includes:

• Syrinx Environmental (lead-consultant, environmental consultant/landscape architect)
• Carrier and Postmus Architects (landscape architect/architect)
• Seashore Engineering (coastal engineer)
• Element Advisory (community & stakeholder engagement)
• Brendan Moore (cultural advisor)

The City maintains the public open space and foreshore through its Parks and Natural Area maintenance teams at all three sites except for at Peninsula Farm in Maylands which is managed by the National Trust (WA).

The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions are the governing authority for the Swan River as each site sits within the Swan Canning Development Control Area. For more information click here.

The Department of Planning Lands and Heritage manages the Aboriginal Heritage, of which the Derbal Yerrigan (Swan River) is a registered and immeasurably significant site to Whadjuk people.