Interviewed by Lauren Humphryson, 11 March 2025
As a Councillor with the Town of Victoria Park, Peter Devereux provides an invaluable connection between the Friends and the Town, a partnership vital to further development and preservation of Jirdarup Bushland. We were able to speak to him further on his vision for Jirdarup and its pivotal role in the community. Peter has shared a wealth of knowledge and experience from professional, community and council perspectives.
Read what he had to say.
What has been your involvement with the Bushland so far?
Living in Carlisle but having my kids attend Kent St High School has meant I was always aware of the Bushland, but never closely connected to it like I have become more recently. I had always believed the school could better use this natural resource as a valuable natural science tool for Australian biodiversity preservation and education, but more than that it was not previously somewhere I came to regularly because it wasn’t in my immediate vicinity.
It wasn’t until I was elected Vic Park Councillor in 2021, and with my background in environmental science and sustainability, that I was able to take on more directly my motivation to make Vic Park a greener, more sustainable area. It was then that I truly recognised the value of Jirdarup Bushland. Straight after my election I was invited by the Friends to walk through the Bushland with them, and I soon became aware of how passionate, experienced and thoughtful the group was. I quickly realised how important supporting the community groups like Friends would be in working towards my goals of nurturing shared bushland spaces within the community. I hope that I’ve been able to provide a specific kind of dialogue, between the Friends Committee directly with Councillors like me, and maybe even offer some of my own ideas from my own environmental science and sustainability expertise.
What is your favourite fauna/flora found within the bushland?
That’s such a hard question! I’ve always loved the richness of biodiversity within the bushland, the fact that there are so many species to choose from is a testament to this!
Obviously the orchids are a great drawcard for the bushland, they’re so beautiful and it always feels so special when you find them. I also love seeing jarrah trees, especially because of how rare they’re becoming due to their susceptibility to dieback and being cleared for development. Seeing remnant mature jarrah trees in the bushland will always make me happy. And of course its rich birdlife has always been revered, seeing so many cockatoos having a haven amongst the suburbs is truly remarkable. We’ve seen a big decline in cockatoo populations over the years due to loss of food and habitat, so knowing they have a safer space to thrive is so important to support their numbers. In the future I’d love to see more species be able to be supported, like quendas or bobtails. A bobtail population is definitely a possibility, I’ve got one living in my backyard, so they’re an adaptable species!
How do you see the Bushland functioning in the future as a haven for biodiversity?
I think having a bigger picture perspective in mind is so important. My vision with the Friends for 2049 (on their anniversary) was all about connecting these remnant bushlands in our suburbs to create biodiversity corridors, instead of segregated pockets with limited interaction. My goal has always been to expand and connect, as the only way to preserve native bush.
The Friends have been completely committed to this goal from the start, one example of an initiative that’s been supportive of this is the native tree planting down Kent St organised by the dedicated and knowledgeable Town Staff, with the aim to connect native flora and birdlife with the South Perth remnant bushlands, creating a corridor to connect the two. It has been amazing to see the community become so involved in this tree planting, so invested in its success, and this is a critical part of my vision for Friends for 2049 as they consolidate their work connecting our community with their local flora and fauna.
This mindset will also be instrumental in how we view and deal with future housing developments in the area near Jirdarup. We are obviously in a housing crisis right now, and more housing is not only inevitable, but very necessary. What I’d like to see, however, is a strong dialogue and collaboration between the concerned community, the Town, and the Friends. It should be a question of how to develop any new sustainable housing to be mid-level density, and instead of each occupant having their own backyard, encourage a native forest shared community space. It’s about bringing remnant bushland into the consciousness of developers and potential tenants, and bringing these native species into the everyday surrounds of apartment buildings. It’s unrealistic to completely discourage future inner city development, especially when housing is so needed-and the cost of urban sprawl is so devastating.
Our mindset needs to instead provide an exemplary example of how development and wildlife preservation can be collaborative, and provide public open space with economic, social and environmental benefits to all involved stakeholders. It’s definitely possible, without a doubt. To be able to show a development right in the heart of Perth’s inner city that provides great quality, affordable medium density housing, whilst also prioritising a valuable natural asset, that would be invaluable as an example to other areas facing these challenges as well.
Can you explain how you see the connection between the community, the Friends Committee and Councillors like yourself is important for the management of the Bushland?
Communication and collaboration between the community, the Friends Committee, Town staff and the Council has been essential for the successes to date within the Bushland. I feel Councillors like me can benefit from dialogue with key stakeholders like the community and the Committee, so all can contribute to shape appropriate local policy development that protects bushland.
It was in fact, the Friends of Jirdarup, with the community, who proposed the redevelopment of the Vic Park Sandpit to re-join the Bushland area. From there working directly with the Council staff, Mayor, councillors and local First Nations leaders they were able to further flesh out this proposal which the Town is now committed to. There’s been great potential for it to work this way, when all parties are so passionate for the same cause. There are of course great challenges to this, especially with so much work shouldered by volunteers in a community group like the Friends, in their spare time. But that’s when collaboration becomes even more important and so the way the Town staff have been able to follow through has been so important. Collaborative and complementary work towards a common goal has built momentum. Continued active listening, collaboration and consultation with the Town will help the community and Friends foster the support they need to keep the momentum for their vision alive.
There are also inspiring times to be able to hear directly from the community. Just recently the Town of Vic Park held the Annual Meeting of Electors, where members of the community had the opportunity to share their queries and ideas for local action in a way that Councillors like me could listen to the concerns of the people we serve. We received on the night concerns from the community about trees and Bushland and this highlights how connected people feel nature is to the life of the Town.
Why do you believe people value the Bushland so much? Why does the community advocate for it so strongly?
I truly believe Friends and the bushland are a catalyst for so much change and constructive action between people and our local environment. People can see how positive it is for quality of life, for preserving community values, for native wildlife, to have thriving urban bushland. The community sees caring for the bushland not as a chore, but a responsibility and privilege. We’ve seen how much these Jirdarup initiatives have truly empowered our community.
I’ve heard, and I think a lot of people will agree, that looking at the news, the state of the world, these big issues of global wars and climate change, we seem insignificant in comparison. There’s been a loss of hope in the community, we’ve seen many communities in despair and feeling that they can’t make a difference. It’s initiatives, groups like Friends, that remind us we do have the ability to enact the change we want to see, that communities want to be part of Jirdarup as a bushland, and the Friends of Jirdarup by extension, provide a beautiful example of the pride a community can feel when they put hard work into something they believe in, and are rewarded in return by nature. It’s truly invaluable to the spirit of the Vic Park community.
