Quenda Wetland

Statement of Significance

Quenda Wetland is significant as a remnant natural wetland comprising indigenous bushland, fauna and bird species. for initial association with indigenous Aboriginal people and later the pioneer settlers. SIGNIFICANT ITEMS: The entire Reserve comprising bushland, wetland, and flora and fauna and bird species.

Physical Description

Quenda Wetland comprises a remnant natural bushland important for indigenous species of flora and fauna – Flooded Gum, Paperbarks, Banksia and Spearwood and flowering plants; and frog species, the Long-Necked Tortoise, the Southern Brown Bandicoot (the Quenda) and bush birds.

History

Quenda Wetland and the lake are known to have been used by the Beeliar Nyoongars as a seasonal source of food and freshwater. Birds, shellfish and tortoises provided food and the natural bushland was a resource for shelter making. The Reserve and the lake, together with nearby Booragoon Lake and Piney Lakes, once formed part of an Aboriginal transport route passing through freshwater lakes south of the Swan River. Quenda Wetland is likely to have been in use by Aboriginal people for at least 38,000 years. After European settlement around 1830, the land around the Quenda Wetland was cleared for pine plantations by the State Forests Department, and the wetland area and lake left uncleared as too wet for pine plantings. The lake was deepened in the early 1900s to store water for fire fighting in the pine plantations. Pines were cleared in the 1970s and 1980s for housing development, leaving the immediate wetland as a remnant bushland largely undisturbed. The area around the Quenda Wetland is now occupied by Murdoch University, St. John of God Hospital and Fiona Stanley Hospital; formerly the locality was used for farming and endowment lands, allocated to settlers in the district. The name 'Quenda Reserve' recognises the presence of the local Southern Brown Bandicoot, or Quenda, which inhabits the sedge growth and thick undergrowth.

Condition

Sound, under management and rejuvenation by the City of Melville.

Creation Date

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