Today we can visit Beeliar wetlands and experience a taste of the stunning Western Australian wetlands that once extended along the Swan coastal plain. A rich tapestry of flora and fauna have made these wetlands their home but now face an uncertain future: successive governments have catastrophically failed to protect the native habitat which have earned Perth’s status as a biodiversity hotspot.
Less than 20% of these wetlands remain today. If we do not act now to conserve and protect these precious places, there will be nothing left for future generations.
A long standing threat to these wetlands is dangerously close to becoming a reality. A four lane, estimated 5km highway extension – proposed on and off for decades – has received financial backing by Tony Abbott’s federal government to the tune of more than half a billion dollars. This fragment of highway remains from a city plan drafted in 1955, back when land clearing and filling in wetlands were the norm. Significant features of our city’s transport plan have evolved in the decades since.
Despite insisting we face a budget crisis, prime minister Abbott has thrown an unprecedented small fortune at the Roe 8 extension and wrapped it up as part of a never-before-heard-of “Perth freight link.” The project, from Muchea to Fremantle Port, was revealed only recently.
As revealed in Senate and State Estimates hearings through questioning by Greens MPs, the PM allocated this money without a proper business case, traffic modelling, or federal environmental and heritage assessment. He has done so despite the fact that appeals regarding the Roe 8 portion are still under consideration by the WA environmental protection authority. The number of people who opposed the project throughout the submissions process was substantial, with 3,200 public submissions demonstrating the strong long standing community opposition to the project. Over 160 appeals to the EPA decision are still under consideration.
On close examination, the stated benefits of this road vanish into thin air; the cost (reported by the Fremantle Herald as $170,000 per metre) is obscene for any portion of bitumen; the ecological impacts are devastating; the heritage destruction is hurtful and offensive to the descendants of the Beeliar people who have valued this area for thousands of years.
Despite having been refused a cost-benefit analysis, one thing we know is certain to further ruin wetlands is an expensive endeavour. Costs of trying to maintain the wetland system after it has been ploughed through and exposed to increased pollutants will hike up the final price tag. Attempting to maintain an ecological link between North and Bibra Lakes whilst managing toxic drainage from the roads into the water systems that sustain the environment will hike up costs too.
However, the Greens are concerned about far more than monetary cost. We believe that what has not been considered for their value are the ecological services that are provided by this wetland: as a carbon sink or a ground water recharge area.
We must question whether the current government has considered the land as a valuable place of rest and recreation obliterated as result of this highway, or the lost heritage values to local aboriginal groups. These do not appear to be factored in or considered despite outcry from the local communities who stand in long term opposition.
These wetlands are home to threatened and vulnerable species including Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo, Forest Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, Southern Brown Bandicoot, Graceful Sun Moth, Lined Skink, Peregrine Falcon, Spotless Crake, Buff-Banded Rail, and King Spider Orchid. These wetlands nurture a wonderful ecological potpourri we have a responsibility to preserve.
There are transport alternatives, sustainable ones. State and federal governments have long ignored suggestions to reduce congestion by moving more freight on rail, improving city planning and investing in alternatives to our road-choking single passenger vehicles like light rail.
The impact of the new “freeway” from the airport will be to funnel several lanes of port traffic into a tight bottleneck of two lanes across the bridge into North Fremantle. Expanding and enhancing rail freight, which is shown to emit less pollution than trucks, is the most obvious and sustainable solution. We must plan for moving freight through the outer harbour now. By the time the Perth freight link is completed in 2021, we will be forced to pursue this more sustainable solution anyway.
The current plan delivers a short term alternative to two parallel east-west roads, all of which will choke with traffic in just a few years anyway. The proposed highway extension will destroy forever the beauty, tranquillity and amenity of the Beeliar wetlands, an oasis in the heart of the south metropolitan region.
I have quoted the Save Beeliar Wetlands group before, who articulate best what is at stake here: they describe Roe 8 as a pointless act of environmental vandalism against a sanctuary from which a great number of people and fauna obtain peace, enjoyment and refuge.
As in years past I will continue to press for economic sense from our urban planners both within the halls of parliament and in the community. I have also proposed legislation to urgently protect and conserve WA’s biodiversity. It is not too late to stop Roe 8.