Bennett Brook is a

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a strea ...

that runs from

Whiteman Park Whiteman Park is a bushland area located north of Perth, Western Australia. The park is in the suburb of Whiteman, Western Australia, Whiteman, in the Swan Valley (Western Australia), Swan Valley in the upper reaches of the Swan River (Weste ...

to the Swan River in Western Australia.

Overview

Bennett Brook's catchment area covers . Approximately half of the catchment area is covered by

and the Gnangara Pine Plantation. The rest of the catchment is urbanised, covering the suburbs of Ballajura, Beechboro, Bennett Springs, Kiara, Lockridge, Malaga, Morley and Noranda. The tributaries to the west are highly modified and partially underground. The tributaries to the north are mostly natural. Upstream areas only flow between August and November. Groundwater pumping from the

Gnangara Mound The Gnangara Mound is an area north of Perth, Western Australia where a large mound of sandy soil reaches an elevation of about . It stores about of fresh water, about one hundred times Perth's current annual water usage. It is currently the si ...

has made the flow lower than the natural flow. Downstream areas flow year round. Urbanisation has made the flow downstream higher than the natural flow, due to higher

surface runoff Surface runoff (also known as overland flow or terrestrial runoff) is the unconfined flow of water over the ground surface, in contrast to ''channel runoff'' (or ''stream flow''). It occurs when excess rainwater, stormwater, meltwater, or other ...

from roads and houses. By the 1960s,

Lew Whiteman Manton Lewis Cyril Whiteman (9 July 1903 – 1 March 1994) was an Australian businessman and collector. He owned Whitemans Brick and is the namesake of Whiteman Park. Early life and brickworks career Whiteman was born on 9 July 1903 in Jane Bro ...

, the owner of much of the land that makes up Whiteman Park today, built a dam across Bennett Brook and deepened a natural pool along the brook to form the Mussel Pool, named due to the naturally occurring

freshwater mussel Freshwater bivalves are molluscs of the order Bivalvia that inhabit freshwater ecosystems. They are one of the two main groups of freshwater molluscs, along with freshwater snails. The majority of bivalve molluscs are saltwater species that l ...

s. The area has since become a picnic spot. The dam prevented the seasonal migration of small fish, resulting in the areas upstream of the dam having no fish. A

fish ladder A fish ladder, also known as a fishway, fish pass, fish steps, or fish cannon, is a structure on or around artificial and natural barriers (such as dams, locks and waterfalls) to facilitate diadromous fishes' natural migration as well as mov ...

was constructed in 1999, allowing the

western minnow The western galaxias (''Galaxias occidentalis''), also called the western minnow, is a species of fish in the genus Galaxias of small, Southern Hemisphere freshwater fish of the family ''Galaxiidae''. It is endemic to southwestern Australia. ...

and

western pygmy perch The western pygmy perch (''Nannoperca vittata'') is a species of temperate perch endemic to southwestern Australia. Description The Western pygmy perch is a small fish with an olive, brown and green mottled body with tow orange stripes along th ...

to reach upstream of the dam. The first fish ladder in Australia, it was designed by a

Murdoch University Murdoch University is a public university in Perth, Western Australia, with campuses also in Singapore and Dubai. It began operations as the state's second university on 25 July 1973, and accepted its first undergraduate students in 1975. Its ...

zoologist and built by a team of people on the

Work for the Dole Work for the Dole is an Australian Government program that is a form of workfare, or work-based welfare. It was first permanently enacted in 1998, having been trialled in 1997. It is one means by which job seekers can satisfy the "mutual obligat ...

program.

Bridges

From south to north: *

Benara Road Benara Road is an east–west road in the north-eastern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. Route description Benara Road starts off at a roundabout with Camboon Road in Noranda as a two-lane, single carriageway road with a speed limit of ...

Reid Highway Reid Highway is a east-west highway and partial freeway in the northern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, linking North Beach with Middle Swan. As part of State Route 3, it forms half of Perth's outer ring road along with Roe Highway, w ...

, which opened on 25 November 1996 *

Marshall Road Marshall Road is an east–west road in the northern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. It is continuous with Beach Road. Route description Marshall Road starts off at a roundabout with Isoodon Street and Dayton Boulevard in a suburban deve ...

*The

Ellenbrook line The Ellenbrook line, known as the Morley–Ellenbrook line during construction, is a suburban railway line in Perth, Western Australia, which is operated by the Public Transport Authority (Western Australia), Public Transport Authority as part ...

, which bridges over the brook at one of it narrowest points

Fauna

Animals found in and around Bennett Brook include: * '' Chelodina oblonga'' – southwestern snake-necked turtle * '' Westralunio carteri'' – species of freshwater mussel * ''

Isoodon obesulus The southern brown bandicoot (''Isoodon obesulus'') is a short-nosed bandicoot, a type of marsupial, found mostly in southern Australia. A subspecies in Western Australia is also known as the quenda in Southwest Australia, South Western Australia ...

'' – quenda or southern brown bandicoot * ''

Trichosurus vulpecula The common brushtail possum (''Trichosurus vulpecula'', from the Greek for "furry tailed" and the Latin for "little fox", previously in the genus ''Phalangista'') is a nocturnal, semiarboreal marsupial of the family Phalangeridae, native to Aus ...

'' – brush-tailed possum * ''

Hydromys chrysogaster ''Hydromys'' is a genus of semiaquatic rodents in the subfamily Murinae. Three species are endemic to New Guinea and nearby islands. The fourth species, the rakali, is also found on Australia. The most recently discovered member of this genus was ...

'' – water rat

Name

Bennett Brook is named after Matilda Bennett, the wife of

John Septimus Roe John Septimus Roe (8 May 1797 – 28 May 1878) was the first Surveyor-General of Western Australia. He was a renowned explorer, a member of Western Australia's legislative and executive councils for nearly 40 years, but also a participant in ...

.New suburb of Bennett Springs
– City of Swan Media Release. Published 29 April 2011.

References

{{Rivers of Western Australia Swan River (Western Australia) Whiteman Park

Overview

Bridges

Fauna

Name

See also

References