Councils, Cars and Critters Managing road verges for competing values in southern

Greg Keighery Do you know where I am?

# Photo Bronwen Keighery Where am I now? Tuart Eucalyptus gomphocephala

Endemic to the Swan Coastal Plain in WA

Type from Geographe Bay in 1801

Unusual eucalypt, not closely related to any other species

Two varieties, one presumed extinct Eucalyptus gomphocephala var. rhodoxylon

Guildford

Wreath Leschenaultia (Lechenaultia macrantha)

Native Foxglove (Dasymalla terminalis) Two Presumed Destroyed Ecological Communities

Greenough Flats Vegetation System

Irwin Vegetation System Bandicoot Nature Reserve

• a diversity of species, 470 species and 400 native species • 60 Significant Flora including 18 DRF & Priority ‘The arguments in favour of roads are direct and concrete, while those against are subtle and difficult to express.’ (Marshall, 1935)

Importance of roadside vegetation: • Sense of place • Last remnants of ecological communities • Vital Landscape connectivity • Corridors/wildlife habitat • Last refuge for some rare species • Transects of past communities Genetically different: Road verge plantings local

northern

Currently known Busselton Ironstones occurrences with remnant vegetation

Taylor’s

McGibbon Ruabon-Tutunup Road track

Oates Chambers Road Williamson Road Road

Gale Road

Treeton Block

3 1 Tutunup Road Bushland

1 Foothills Mountain Marri and Jarrah Low Forest (SWAFCT 1a &1b) 2 Banksia Woodland (SWAFCT 21b) along either side of the old railway (centre). 2 3 Busselton Ironstones (SWAFCT 10b) Busselton Ironstone Endemics

3 2 1

1

1: Grevillea elongata 2: Isopogon formosus subsp. dasylepis P3 4 3: Dryandra squarrosa subsp. argillacea R 4: Dryandra nivea subsp. Swan R Tutunup Railway verge – burnt 1993/94, very good regeneration Calothamnus quadrifidus subspecies teretifolius Grevillea maccutcheonii Rare Flora roadside markers Roadside Grevillea (Grevillea curviloba) Silky Eremophila (Eremophila nivea) Wooly Native Foxglove () Wheatbelt populations

Yellow Upsidedown Pea (Leptosema tomentosum)

Fat Blue Samphire (Tecticornia bulbosa) Grevillea brachystylis subsp. grandis Eucalyptus “Pingrup Pink” Review

Importance of roadside vegetation: • Sense of place • Last remnants of ecological communities • Vital Landscape connectivity • Corridors/wildlife habitat • Last refuge for some rare species • Transects of past plant communities