Darling Range Branch, 8 November 2024

Jirdarup Bushland is an 18 ha area of remnant native bush in the Town of Victoria Park; it is the closest Bush Forever site to the city of Perth. At the DRB Nats meeting on Friday, 9 November, Lesley van Schoubroeck and Dan Carter talked about this lovely bushland in conjunction with a brief look at Dan’s newly published book, Birds of Jirdarup.

Even without the birds, the bushland is remarkable for its floral diversity—the current count of species noted is 257, including 8 species of tree and 24 orchids. Then there is the fauna: an amazing 69 bird species have been recorded, along with 16 different reptiles. Dan also mentioned numerous invertebrates.

Even without the birds, the bushland is remarkable for its floral diversity—the current count of species noted is 257, including 8 species of tree and 24 orchids. Then there is the fauna: an amazing 69 bird species have been recorded, along with 16 different reptiles. Dan also mentioned numerous invertebrates.

Although the bushland is generally very healthy, much work is still underway from an army of volunteers tackling the usual weeds, particularly Gladioli and African Grasses. The Town of Victoria Park has also sent workers in to poison many of these things, but there has been confusion about the silky leaves of Sun Orchids being mistaken for Gladioli.

However, only a little harm has been done, and as Lesley reported, with the removal of many of the weeds, there has been a burgeoning of the orchids. In the southern part of the reserve, there is an abandoned sandpit. It is currently very weedy and unattractive. However, the plan is to have it fully rehabilitated by 2043.

After Lesley finished speaking about the bushland, she handed over to Dan, who spoke briefly about the 50 or so birds detailed in the book (excellent photographs). Then, he went on to talk about the need to encourage birds in areas surrounding places like Jirdarup. This means bird-friendly suburban gardens, and this implies much more than planting the odd grevillea for aggressive honeyeaters. Bird-friendly gardens also need plants that attract insects for the insectivores, they need prickly shrubs for safety from predators, they need places where cobwebs can accumulate for the many species of birds that use cobwebs in building their nests, and they need water for drinking. And on this point, it must be noted that some birds like their water at ground level where they can walk up to it, while others are much happier with a water bowl on a pedestal where they can fly to it, so a bird-friendly garden will have water available at several sites.

Many thanks to Lesley and Dan for an interesting talk. More details of Jirdarup bushland can be found on their website: The Friends of Jirdarup Bushland

Mike Green