The guest speaker for our August meeting was Margaret Larke and the topic was Kings Park. Margaret’s presentation took us through the history of Kings Park starting with its Indigenous Heritage, which dates back some 50,000 years. The land that now makes up the park was an important meeting and camping place for the Whadjuk people.

The presentation then covered European settlement commencing with a visit by Vlaming in 1697 followed by Baudin/Heirisson in 1801 and then Captain James Stirling in 1827 which lead to the formation of the Swan River Colony in 1829. The area of the park at time became crown land and Jarrah logging occurred in 1835. In 1872 it was gazetted as Recreation and Parklands.

It became a Public Park of 405ha in 1890, was renamed Perth Park in 1895, became an A Class Reserve in 1900 and was renamed Kings park in 1901. Development was slow until the 1960’s when the Botanic Garden was established in 1965 under John Beard (1961-1970), leading to a focus on science based programs, Paul Wicherley (1971-1992) and Stephen Hopper (1992-2004). In 1998 Bold Park was vested in the Botanical Gardens and Parks Authority (BGPA) and this was followed by a Biodiversity and Conservation Centre in 2005, a Conservation Garden in 2008 and the development of public use areas such as the Synergy Parkland.

The Vision of the BGPA is: To create and provide world-recognised botanic gardens and parks and to inspire the conservation of biological diversity. Kings Park (at 404ha) is now the largest inner city park in the world. Of its 404 ha, 267ha is bushland containing 450 native plant species, around 80 bird species and possibly Quendas. The Botanic Garden is 17ha and contains around 3000 West Australian species. A Conservation Garden was added in 2004 and a Water garden in 2000.

Margaret then discussed some of the recent additions such as the Botanic Terraces and the Rio Tinto Naturescape. As KRMB was scheduled to visit Kings Park on the Sunday after the talk, Margaret displayed a map of the park and pointed out areas that we might find interesting such as the Bushland Walk and Banksia Garden. The presentation ended with a discussion on how important volunteers are for the operation of the park including as visitor guides, the Friends of Kings Park Group and as bushland carers. The audience thanked Margaret for her informative presentation.

Colin Prickett