Fifty years ago, in 1974, the Club instigated a massive cleanup of Tomato Swamp in Kewdale for its 50th anniversary conservation project.

Tomato Swamp (now Tomato Lake) had become infested with a thick mat of the introduced aquatic
fern Salvinia molesta, a category 3 restricted invasive plant under the Biosecurity Act, which covered
the entire lake. The weed was preventing waterbirds from using the lake and the long-necked turtles
from coming to the surface to breathe.

Club members, the local community and the Belmont Shire Council (now City of Belmont), joined
together and by manually removing the weed, the lake returned to being a haven for wildlife.
Tomato Lake is now a refuge for the turtles and numerous bird species as well as its surrounds being
a very popular spot for passive recreation.

The Tomato Swamp cleanup represents a notable community environmental effort. The entire
operation was filmed by the Committee for the Understanding of the Environment (CUE) – a citizens
committee appointed to help create public awareness of environmental issues. in 1974 the CUE
came under the Dept of Environmental Protection – a government department that supported the
Environment Protection Authority (EPA).

Helping to restore Tomato Lake to a wildlife haven is just one of many achievements over the past
100 years that the WA Naturalists’ Club is proud of.