Maylands Lakes

Over the past month, rainfall and warmer temperatures have provided optimal conditions for midge breeding within Maylands Lakes.

In October, a larger larvicide treatment was undertaken for midge within Lake Brearley, in accordance with the City’s Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) permit. While monitoring has revealed midge numbers are reducing, it is expected there may be some fluctuation over the coming weeks as a result of further rainfall.

The City will continue to undertake treatments and raking on a 14-day rotation with another larger treatment scheduled for December.

Four additional midge traps have also been deployed around the lakes this week, bringing the total to 20 traps.

The City continues to actively work on reducing midge numbers through the application of larvicides to the maximum permitted levels within the lakes and the raking of midge breeding areas.

The City is installing two water tanks around Brickworks Lake reserve to irrigate surrounding areas.

The City has turned off the pump that previously extracted irrigation water from the lake as a precaution due to the presence of cyanobacteria.

A temporary tank will be operational later this month, with a permanent tank to be constructed next to existing bore infrastructure. The permanent tank will be operational from late January 2025 and the temporary tank then removed. Both tanks will allow irrigation to be supplied directly from the bore without connection to Brickworks Lake, eliminating any risk associated with cyanobacteria.

The City will manually water the reserve in the coming weeks using water trucks until the temporary tank is operational. Any yellowing of turf is expected to recover when the temporary tank is in operation.

The temporary tank location (November to January) is shown in blue, with the permanent tank location shown in orange.

Temporary pipework will be visible for connecting the temporary tank to existing irrigation infrastructure. Vehicles will be required to access the reserve during construction of the tanks, with appropriate traffic management in place.

Two trees will be removed to make way for the permanent tank. These trees have been assessed by an arborist as poor quality and will be replaced with 10 Marri trees (Corymbia calophylla) in the 2025 winter planting season. Marri trees have been chosen due to their suitability as a foraging plant for Carnaby's black cockatoo.

Maylands Lakes residents and community members are invited to two community engagement events relating to the management and remediation of Maylands Lakes. The details for each event are provided below.

Maylands Lakes Masterplan Listening Post

RSVP: By 5pm, Friday 6 December 2024 to Coordinator Executive Services, Nicole Ceric, via nicole.ceric@bayswater.wa.gov.au or 9272 0622.

Contractors will be onsite 19 September to undertake monthly water quality monitoring. This monitoring helps us understand water conditions and provides data to assist the preparation of the Environmental Restoration Masterplan.

On Thursday 5 September, the City held its second Maylands Lakes Community Forum at the Maylands Sport and Recreation Club.

The workshop report and slides can be found below and in the Documents section to the right-hand side of this page.

• Workshop Report
• Slides

To stay up to date, residents are encouraged to subscribe to this project by clicking the Subscribe button at the top-right of the page.

A new project tracker for the Maylands Lakes Environmental Restoration Masterplan has been added to the dashboards above.

This dashboard will be updated as key project milestones progress, providing you with up to date information.

The project tracker includes buttons to isolate activities such as community forums, Council meeting decisions, Scientific Advisory Panel meetings and more. Noting, this information is indicative and may be updated as key events are adjusted.

At its December 2023 meeting, Council endorsed the scope for the preparation of the Maylands Lakes Environmental Restoration Masterplan. Alluvium Consulting has been appointed as the consultant to prepare the masterplan.

If you would like further information, contact the City's Environment Manager at alex.devine@bayswater.wa.gov.au.

On Thursday 5 September, the City held its second Maylands Lakes Community Forum at the Maylands Sport and Recreation Club.

Thank you to all the residents who attended.

The City is committed to finding a solution to the poor water quality and midge issues being experienced at Maylands Lakes.

The report and slides from the forum will be published on this page within the next two weeks.

To stay up to date, subscribe to this project by clicking the Subscribe button at the top-right of the page.

The City has deployed four new traps at Maylands Lakes in an effort to reduce midge activity.

The City has partnered with the Bayswater Community Men’s Shed to construct the traps, with Men's Shed members building the frames that sit atop the bins which collect midge. Approximate midge numbers are reported each week.

For more information on midge numbers, click on the Midge Management tile on the project page or visit PowerBI to view the data.

The City continues to work on managing midge numbers through applying larvicides to the maximum permitted level and through the raking of midge breeding areas.

Existing midge traps have been adjusted to turn on earlier in the evening to better intercept midge before they reach light sources on private properties.

To help minimise the impact of midge during these times of elevated breeding, residents can:

• Keep windows and doors closed at sunset and early in the morning
• Place blacklight traps outside their property
• Install fine mesh flyscreens
• Reduce the wattage of external lights
• Use yellow external lights
• Apply a registered residual barrier insecticide on external harbourage areas of your home. Impacted residents can obtain a barrier insecticide and supporting information free of charge by contacting the City’s Environmental Health team on 9272 0648.

Pictured: City of Bayswater Acting Mayor Elli Petersen-Pik with Bayswater Community Men’s Shed President Bill Voss and member Lloyd.

The City has appointed Mr Ian Edwards to the Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) for Maylands Lakes. This is in addition to the recent appointment of Dr John Ruprecht to the SAP.

Ian Edwards has a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) and 35 years of engineering experience in the mining industry.

Ian lives adjacent to Lake Bungana and has been passionately assisting the City to manage water quality challenges at the site.

He has practical experience and working knowledge of pumps and filters, and has designed large-scale filtration systems for mining projects.

We trust Ian’s experience and expertise will contribute to achieving positive outcomes for Maylands Lakes.

The City will undertake landscape rejuvenation works in the garden bed area adjacent to De Havilland View near Lake Bungana from Monday 2 September 2024. Plants will be a native species mix, endemic to the area and proven to tolerate local conditions. The plants will provide a floral display and act as habitat for endemic fauna. A species list is provided in the Documents section under Letters to Community. If you have any questions, please contact the City’s Natural Area Coordinator Matthew Moore at matthew.moore@bayswater.wa.gov.au.