Maylands Lakes

The City has completed planting trees on the islands within Lake Bungana and Lake Brearley. Three different endemic species have been planted across the five islands, including Eucalyptus rudis, Melaleuca rhaphiophylla and Casuarina obesa.

A reminder community members are invited to provide their feedback on the Maylands Lakes Concept Design Report before 11pm this Sunday 16 March 2025.

The City’s consultants are seeking to understand the community’s acceptance of the range of proposed intervention methods contained within the report to address the issues at Maylands Lakes.

Provide your feedback by clicking visiting the Maylands Lakes Concepts Feedback Form on the Masterplan project page.

Q&As from the Maylands Lakes Masterplan Workshop on Wednesday 26 February are now available below and on the Masterplan project page.

• Maylands Lakes Masterplan Workshop - Questions and Answers (247 KB) (pdf)

The consideration of pumps and filtration to alleviate the issues at Maylands Lakes will now be considered at the Ordinary Council Meeting of Tuesday 29 April 2025 along with the draft Masterplan.

Thank you to those who attended the Maylands Lakes Masterplan Workshop on Wednesday 26 February 2025 at The RISE.

Community members heard from consultants Alluvium, and Josh Byrne and Associates, and provided feedback on a concept design report that was developed.

An online feedback form is now available for those who could not attend the workshop.

For more information, visit the Maylands Lakes Environmental Restoration Masterplan project page on Engage Bayswater.

The City is installing irrigation on the islands at Lake Brearley and Lake Bungana. Following this, 14 trees will be planted across the islands, including endemic fringe wetland species Eucalyptus rudis, Melaleuca rhaphiophylla and Casuarina obesa.

Following a review of assets around Maylands Lakes, the wooden outlook structures at De Havilland View/Kittyhawk View, and Dakota Avenue, have been closed off. Temporary fencing will be installed around both outlooks to ensure public safety. An update will be provided following further assessment.

As part of our commitment to improving water quality at Maylands Lakes, the City has been pruning vegetation on the islands at Lake Brearley and Lake Bungana in an effort to deter the cormorant population.

At its January meeting, Council sought confirmation that non-invasive trees on the islands at Lake Bungana would not be pruned.

Unfortunately, the City has experienced issues with its contractor in correctly implementing these works.

A number of endemic Melaleuca trees were pruned by the contractor in error. Herbicide was also applied without authorisation to a number of Japanese pepper trees. Despite this, the trees are expected to grow back.

The City has since engaged an independent arborist who determined the Melaleuca trees are expected to also grow back within 12-24 months. The City is now looking to plant endemic trees on the island and install irrigation to give them the best opportunity to thrive.

This situation is disappointing and the City will not engage with this contractor in future.

A Maylands Lakes Masterplan Workshop has been scheduled for Wednesday 26 February.

For more information and to register, visit the News Feed section of our Maylands Lakes Environmental Restoration Masterplan project page.

At last night's Council meeting, an item of urgent business was raised regarding the pruning of vegetation on the islands at Lake Brearley and Lake Bungana.

Council noted the works at Lake Brearley are nearing completion. Council sought confirmation from Administration that non-invasive trees, such as eucalypts, on the islands at Lake Bungana would not be pruned.

It was also confirmed the City will plant endemic species on the islands during the winter planting season.

In 2024, the City engaged a specialist consultant to prepare a Maylands Lakes Environmental Restoration Masterplan that will approach the water quality issues in a holistic manner.

As part of developing the Masterplan, the consultant Alluvium has been provided with all previous research and data from the City and undertaken additional analysis to better understand the water quality challenges.

This has included reviewing lake water and groundwater assessments undertaken by GHD, and others associated with the Maylands Lakes project. GHD had previously developed estimates of water balance that Alluvium has further refined by considering additional catchment runoff and nutrient concentrations.

Alluvium has also considered international literature around the rates of contributions from birds (Hahn et al 2007) and estimates of cormorant numbers from observations and those reported by community members. The Hahn paper highlighted a per capita loading rate of non-breeders of between 4.5–11.5g Nitrogen per day and 2.1–3.2g Phosphorus per day in great cormorants. Using groundwater contributions of 0.23mg/L and surface runoff contributions of 0.1 mg/L for total phosphorus, Alluvium used the water balance estimations to calculate the loads from the various water sources (groundwater, surface water and lake water), and then estimates of the bird numbers, which ranged from 30 to 300 birds, conservatively estimating 100 birds present for nine months of the year. Alluvium also investigated similar estimates for total nitrogen.

This research has shown the bird contribution is significant (up to a third), and if bird numbers were much lower, the contribution would still be a factor in the overall function of the lakes. Advice received from ecologists, water quality scientists and hydrogeologists indicate algal blooms in Perth occur whenever the water conditions are favourable and there is sufficient phosphorus to ‘feed’ the blooms. Any source of phosphorus, whether it be from groundwater, surface water, sediments or birds, is going to provide the necessary ‘food’ for algal blooms to occur.

Reducing these inputs is a primary focus of the City’s actions, therefore focusing on reducing nutrient inputs, including those from birds, will all help make conditions less favourable for future algal blooms. The City will be planting vegetation on the islands across our winter planting seasons. These works will include establishing appropriate endemic species on the islands to support a more diverse habitat, including sedges which will also act as a natural filter to remove nutrients.