In 1912, the Government vested the area that now contains the Jirdarup Bushland Precinct in the Town of Victoria Park for 999 years. The purpose was “Municipal Endowment”. The 200th anniversary is 2112.
By 2012, excisions, sand mining, rubbish dumping and other destructive activities had ceased and the area was moving towards conservation and restoration.
By 2112, we would like to see a thriving bushland where our grandchildren’s grandchildren can hug a tree 100 and even 200 or 400 years old. We would be absolutely delighted if the E.todtiana estimated to be 340 years old in 2025 is still alive and well.
This poses a question: with Climate Change progressing how can we use our collective wisdom to ensure this Precinct continues to thrive to 2112 and beyond?
With a small grant from WA Landcare, the Friends of Jirdarup Bushland in partnership with the Town of Victoria Park and Curtin University hosted a World Café forum titled: Jirdarup 2112: Pathways to Possibilities. The forum was facilitated by a leader in World Café methodology Dee Roche from the UWA Business School. We are indebted to Dee and the volunteer facilitators who made the event a success.
Insights from guest speakers, Noongar Elder Professor Simon Forrest, Dr Katinka Ruthrof and Dr Linda Broadhurst got people thinking. Four questions were posed:
- How might we … accelerate and foster our collective strengths to ensure the trees living and planted in Jirdarup thrive?
- How might we … rethink how we can really make a difference to our approach to bushland preservation, management and restoration to ensure we are building a sustainable and resilient environment that thrives through predicted climate change?
- How might we … reimagine our approach to engaging our diverse local community and organisations to claim shared responsibility for actions required to protect our natural environment until 2112?
- How might we … optimise on opportunities open to us in the next three years and what do we need to do differently to leverage those opportunities to mitigate the impact of climate change on our natural environment?
Pathways to possibilities
Three themes emerged from the discussion:
- Work better together
- Establish the evidence base
- Strengthen community engagement
Recommended reading
Thanks to Dr Broadhurst and Dr Ruthrof for some recommended reading .
- Climate Ready Revegetation – Climate-Reveg-Guide-v2-2018.pdf
- Predicting future climate – Climate Futures Tool
- Revegetation experiments guidelines – Guidelines-for-embedded-experiments-ecological-restoration-Australia.pdf
- Restoration timetable: Research findings 2011
- Restoration treatments to improve seedlings Ruthrof et al
- The efficacy of soil ameliorants to improve early establishment in trees and shrubs in degraded Eucalyptus gomphocephala woodlands. Ruthrof et al
- Linking restoration outcomes with mechanism: the role of site preparation, fertilisation and revegetation timing relative to soil density and water content. Ruthrof et al
- Promoting seedling physiological performance and early establishment in degraded Mediterranean-type ecosystems. Ruthrof et al
Follow up
Tips for successful planting provided by Dr Katinka Ruthrof have been added to our Landcare page.
