The Spectacles Wetlands () is a

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

located in the eponymous suburb, south of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, the capital of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. It is part of

Beeliar Regional Park Beeliar Regional Park is a conservation park approximately south of the Perth central business district, central business district in Perth, Western Australia, located within the Citys of City of Cockburn, Cockburn, City of Kwinana, Kwinana an ...

. It consists of two distinct swamps, the Large Eye Swamp in the north and the Small Eye Swamp in the south. The wetland is also on the

City of Kwinana The City of Kwinana is a local government area of Western Australia. It covers an area of approximately 118 square kilometres in metropolitan Perth, and lies about 38 km south of the Perth central business district, via the Kwinana F ...

heritage list.

History

The area of the

, with its freshwater lakes, was an important camping area and source of food for the Beeliar clan of the

Whadjuk Whadjuk or Wadjak, alternatively Witjari, are Noongar (Aboriginal Australian) people of the Western Australian region of the Perth bioregion of the Swan Coastal Plain. Name The ethnonym appears to derive from , the Whadjuk word for "no". Count ...

people from the

Noongar The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian people who live in the South West, Western Australia, south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton, Western Aus ...

nation. A major trade route connecting the

Swan Swans are birds of the genus ''Cygnus'' within the family Anatidae. The swans' closest relatives include the goose, geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe (biology) ...

and

Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray; Ngarrindjeri language, Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta language, Yorta Yorta: ''Dhungala'' or ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is List of rivers of Australia, Aust ...

passed through the wetlands of what is now Beeliar Regional Park. European records of the Spectacles Wetlands date back to 1841, when the area was first surveyed by Thomas Watson. The Spectacles were part of the

Peel Estate Peel or Peeling may refer to: Places Australia * Peel (Western Australia) * Peel, New South Wales * Peel River (New South Wales) Canada * Peel Parish, New Brunswick * Peel, New Brunswick, an unincorporated community in Peel Parish * Pee ...

post-First World War

Group Settlement Scheme The Group Settlement Scheme was an assisted migration scheme which operated in Western Australia from the early 1920s. It was engineered by Premier James Mitchell and followed on from the Soldier Settlement Scheme immediately after World W ...

but, unlike the other wetlands of the estate, were not drained at the time. The

Peel Main Drain The Peel Main Drain is a Drainage system (agriculture), drainage canal in the southern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. Construction of the canal commenced in 1920 to drain the wetlands in the area as part of the post-World War I Group Settl ...

runs through the wetland and the supporting Baldivis tramway run to the west of it. The wetland is now part of Beeliar Regional Park, being the southern-most component of the park, and a Bush Forever site. It has an area of and features include a Aboriginal Heritage Trail around the larger, northern, wetland, and the Biara Boardwalk Trail on the western side of it. Public access to the wetlands is through the carpark on McLaughlain Road, on the western side of the Spectacles. The access road on the eastern side, Spectacles Drive, has been closed off. A large part of the wetlands is under private ownership by

Alcoa Alcoa Corporation (an acronym for "Aluminum Company of America") is an American industrial corporation. It is the world's eighth-largest producer of aluminum. Alcoa conducts operations in 10 countries. Alcoa is a major producer of primary alu ...

but open to the public. Alcoa purchased the land for industrial purposes and as a dump site but its wetland nature meant it was unsuitable for such a purpose. Through the same evaluation it also became clear that the area was of high conservation value. On 13 May 1998, the Spectacles Wetlands were added to the Town of Kwinana, now

, heritage list.

Flora

In common with other areas of the regional park, the upland of the Spectacles is an area of low woodland and forest of eucalypts, casuarina and banksia, consisting of

jarrah ''Eucalyptus marginata'', commonly known as jarrah, in Noongar language and historically as Swan River mahogany, is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a tree with rough, fibro ...

, ''

Corymbia calophylla ''Corymbia calophylla'', commonly known as marri, is a species of flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae and is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It is a tree or Mallee (habit), mallee with rough bark on part or all of the trunk, ...

'', candlestick banksia, firewood banksia and western sheoak. In the wetland component of the Spectacles, the vegetation consists of swamp paperbark, stout paperbark, '' Melaleuca teretifolia'' and flooded gum.

Sedges The Cyperaceae () are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large; botanists have described some 5,500 known species in about 90 generathe largest being the "true sedges" (genu ...

in the form of ''

Isolepis ''Isolepis'' is a genus of flowering plants in the sedge family, containing around 70 species. ''Isolepis'' is cosmopolitan, and often found in cool tropical and temperate climates in Africa and Australasia. ''Isolepis'' was first described by p ...

'' are also present at the southern wetland of the Spectacles; those are rare.

References

{{Reflist

External links

* Parks and Wildlife Service
Beeliar Regional Park
* Urban Bushland Council WA Inc.
Beeliar Regional Park
Wetlands of Western Australia Beeliar Regional Park