Summary - City of Gosnells

Introduction 11. IntroductionThe City of Gosnells is planning the subdivision and industrial development of an area in the north east of itsjurisdiction that is currently known (for planning purposes) as the Maddington Kenwick StrategicEmployment Area (MKSEA). The MKSEA comprises 585 ha of land currently zoned as rural. It is boundedby Bickley Rd in the south west, Roe Highway in the west and Tonkin Highway in the east and by the Cityof Gosnells – City of Kalamunda boundary in the north-east (Figure 1).The MKSEA was first identified for future industrial development in Metroplan, the 1990 planning strategyfor the Perth metropolitan region (DPUD, 1990). Subsequent to Metroplan, an altered perspective of theMKSEA has developed from the rapid pace of environmental degradation worldwide, the enactment ofFederal and State government environmental legislation and policies and changes in community attitudes toclimate change, the deterioration of water resources, and the resultant heightened awareness of the need toconserve wetlands and biodiversity. At the Federal level, the Australian Government Environment Protectionand Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act) was passed in 1999. A large body of scientific data of thebiodiversity values and the uniqueness of the Swan Coastal Plain (SCP) Bioregion and data of the easternside of the SCP (including Speck and Baird, 1984; Semeniuk, 1987; Keighery and Keighery,1991; Keigheryand Trudgen, 1992; Gibson et. al., 1994; Balla, 1994; Hill et al., 1996; IBRA, 2000 and many others) weredrawn together into various Western Australian Government conservation policies for bushlands and theprotection of SCP wetlands (Government of Western Australia, 2000; WRC, 2001; EPA, 2004a). Strongerrestrictions on native vegetation clearance (amendments made to the Western Australian EnvironmentalProtection Act in 2004) and more focused recommendations of the Swan Canning Water QualityImprovement Plan (Swan River Trust, 2009) have also contributed to changed attitudes and practices innatural resource planning and management.From consultation with relevant State Government Departments and preliminary technical reports for theMKSEA (GHD, 2005; Cardno BSD, 2005), the City of Gosnells identified some of the important planningissues pertinent to the MKSEA proposal (City of Gosnells, 2007a, 2007b, 2008). These issues included thepresence of highly significant conservation values and indigenous heritage values within, and adjacent to, theproject footprint; the interactions between the local and district water regimes; the interactions between thegroundwater and surface waters; the fragmented land ownership (with an excess of 200 landowners currentlyin the MKSEA, see Figure 2) and the potential delays and costs in providing the infrastructure to service theMKSEA. In 2005, the City of Gosnells engaged Cardno BSD to survey the flora, vegetation and wetlands ofthe MKSEA at a level “to provide a sufficient level of information to satisfy the development’s likely formalEnvironmental Impact Assessment by the EPA”. However, it became evident from the resultantenvironmental study and the engineering feasibility study conducted by GHD (2005) that the potential forindustrial development in the MKSEA (particularly between Coldwell Rd and Victoria Road) wassignificantly constrained. The constraints on the MKSEA development included the wetland nature of mostof the land, the high conservation values found in and around the project footprint and the environmentprotection and the biodiversity conservation legislation and policies applicable to these values at both theState and Federal levels.In September 2007, the City of Gosnells commissioned the current flora, vegetation and wetlands survey ofthe MKSEA. A Level 2 detailed survey (as defined by the EPA, 2004b) was required for this survey becauseof the extent of the development proposal, the location of the proposal on the Eastern Swan Coastal Plain (aregion of very high stress on scarce and irreplaceable conservation values) and the potential environmentalimpacts of the development. Similarly, the wetlands survey was required to be conducted at a high level,according to the protocol of DEC (2007). The objectives of the current study, as indicated by the City ofGosnells, were to further assess the potential for industrial development in the MKSEA and to provideadditional guidance to the City of Gosnells in the land use planning and approval processes (particularly inthe area between Yule Brook and Victoria Rd). The need to adopt a “total water cycle management”approach to the development of the MKSEA was a key element of the planning process expressed by theCity of Gosnells in the brief for this survey.Tauss, C. and Weston, A.S. (2010). The flora, vegetation and wetlands of the Maddington-Kenwick Strategic Employment Area.A survey of the rural lands in the vicinity of the Greater Brixton Street Wetlands. Report to the City of Gosnells, W.A. Version 18.04.10