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After considerable consultation, the Town of Victoria Park undertook its first ever cultural burn at the Hill View Terrace bushland site on 9 June 2025. This was done in partnership with local Aboriginal Elders, the Department of Fire and Emergency Services and Curtin University. More information about this will be available over the coming 12 months as the Town and Curtin University study the ecological outcomes and track regeneration.
The Friends of Jirdarup Bushland understand that cultural burning is a significant event for local Noongar people and support initiatives that are determined by Aboriginal people to strengthen their culture.
For information about the project, read this article published by the Urban Bushland Council:
We have collated a number of articles to better inform ourselves and our community about the use of fire by Traditional Owners. They can be accessed here.
About the site
The Hill View Terrace Community Bushland is just over one hectare of remnant Banksia woodland situated on the corner of Hill View Terrace and Berwick Street in Victoria Park and managed by the Town of Victoria Park.
It was listed by the Heritage Council of Western Australia on 31 October 1995. The Town of Victoria Parks Local Heritage Survey 2021 (p156-157) rates its significance as Exceptional.
The bushland is highly valued by the local people as it is the last area of remnant bushland in a residential area in Victoria Park which is steadily becoming denser owing to subdivision of larger blocks.
A survey undertaken in September 2018 identified 61 native vascular plant taxa from 28 families, most from the Fabaceae, Myrtaceae and Proteaceae families. Highly visible plants include Nuytsia floribunda, kangaroo paws, Banksias and eucalypts. These provide food for insects and reptiles and are part of a green corridor for birds and other wildlife across the region. Interestingly there are no balka on the site, nor are they listed in earlier records, including a 1977 listing by botanist Ray Cranfield.
Towards the back of the block, there is a sculpture paying tribute to Aboriginal Dreamtime. In 1995, Noongar Elder, Toogarr Morrison, designed a series of painted poles representing the ancestral being of Nyarrin/Nyingarn (echidna) who according to Aboriginal Dreamtime legend laid the foundation of Western Australia’s bushland (if you have a link to further information on this please contact us).
Check out Hill View from the air in this video taken by Richard Wong in 2019 for the Friends of Kensington Bushland.
Background
Following a five-year campaign led by local environment champion, Cathy Taylor, the block was transferred from Department of Veteran’s Affairs at nominal value to the National Trust to be managed by the Town of Victoria Park. This transfer was facilitated by local Member the Hon Kim Beazley (Southern Gazette, 14 June 1994). This action has ensured the block has not been developed.
Local resident Bill Richmond remembers the area from the 1970s. Read what he told us here.
Further information
Facebook: Hillview Bushblock Admirers
Find Hill View Terrace Community Bushblock
