Beverley River Care Group

10/06/2026

Another strong effort by the crew of five able to join the busy bee this morning.

Plenty of veldt grass cut out of the ground by hand, sand removed and laid down as mulch.

A tray of Atriplex Semibaccata - creeping saltbush were planted. These will cover the area in a green mat in time and reduce the movement of fire along the ground, plus smother w**ds.

Bridal creeper is being targeted too.

Tools and plants purchased with the funds raised from donations to our Containers for Change collection.

Next dates Wednesdays 24th June, 8th July, 22nd July, 5 August, 19th August starting at 8:30am for a couple of hours. Meet at the river end of John Street.

09/06/2026

Let's get on board with the Friends of the Dale River and support their big effort.

Upcoming Black Cockatoo Revegetation Planting Day, Saturday 27th June, Dale River Reserve, Deep Pool Rd, Dale.
Volunteer briefing 10am before a 10.30am start. Come along & enjoy this beautiful natural area while helping us plant nearly 10,000 native seedlings in the last cleared section of the reserve. Friends of the Dale River will supply planting equipment, refreshments and lunch in the form of a sausage sizzle.
Please wear closed in shoes and byo a chair & water bottle.
For catering purposes, we would appreciate an indication of numbers attending.
For more details message Fb page or email [email protected]

07/06/2026

Our industrious local group, the Friends of the Dale is needing help with a major planting day on 27 June at the Dale River reserve.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BJq8BLbjq/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Please set the day aside and come along to help.

27/05/2026

What an effort by the group this morning. We attacked an area of around 1000sqm and made a significant impact on our first day. Looking forward to joining with the Beverley District High School and uncovering more ground - digging out the veldt grass and breaking it up and spreading it for a mulch. Using long and short handled hand tools and a reciprocating saw for those who just can't help themselves.

Over time we will work our way along the walk trail/fire break along the river from John Street towards the bridge. You will see the native grasses and plants come back, the creeping saltbushes that are fire reducing. The view will be better, the fire risk lowered, more space for the natural occurring plants to reestablish themselves.

Watch out for Bridal Creeper (Asparagus asparagoides) in your gardens. This is a serious declared w**d and a W**d of National Significance which is a list of the most problematic plant species in Australia as determined by the federal government. See how the rhizomes grow beneath the ground and every one will sprout a new plant - so cutting them off only slows them a little.

We will be down there each fortnight, beavering away. Help welcomed. We hope to clear 1Ha for this pilot project.

26/05/2026

26/05/2026

Who knows about mussels?
I think the veldt grass team will be knowing all about their own muscles once we get into the pilot project!!

Back in the day, mussels of the aquarian variety were common in the river.
They contributed to keeping the water clean, filtering 1.4 litres of water an hour, 12,000 litres of water a year. Provide good habitat and they multiply easily.

Sadly habitat loss and the resultant salinity have pretty much wiped out our native freshwater mussel (Carter’s freshwater mussel) now red listed on the conservation charts. Whilst their tolerance to salt is quite weak, they might be surviving in fresh soaks.

The recent project you might have read about in the Canning River promoted the habitat for Black Pygmy Mussels (Xenostrobus securis) to flourish and indeed they have with measurable differences in water quality. These ones are possibly in the healthy Dale, and downstream Avon pools such as Gwambygine. Testing by DWER is being planned for later this year. Our river systems are very different to the Canning, but you never know what we have until we try to find it.

In the meantime, if you’re walking along the river, keep your eyes open for mussel shells, even dead ones - there might be a colony nearby. Let us know. Log your find to iNaturalist. https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/projects/waterways-and-bushland-of-beverley-western-australia

Please do not disturb live mussels. Regulations around translocation of aquatic species is highly regulated. If we find some, we can talk to DWER and Murdoch about how best to give them a happy home so they can multiply.

A question for people who have lived here for decades. Do you remember mussels in the Avon? Tell us about them.

25/05/2026

22/05/2026

It was good to see a flock of ducks on the river at Ayers Pool, Caudle Road this morning. It's a couple of kilometres upstream from Beverley.

The Avon isn't just what we see in town and it's not all lost yet. Soaking rains with slow runoff carrying little sediment is what we need. These pools will join up, flush away the yucky soup and the critters in the still healthy pools, as evidenced by the ducks using them, will spread and repopulate.

20/05/2026

We're gathering our bits and pieces up to commence our assault on the veldt grass along the riverside of the town firebreak/walking trail next week (Wednesday 27th May). And to be truthful, considering our choice of project! Nevertheless, we can see there will be benefit to the river environment and help strengthen the town firebreak, so onwards we go.

It's easiest, so I'm reliably informed, to cut the large plants out. This creates the least disturbance of the soil which as we know just opens it up for more seeds to sprout. One of the tools people are telling us about are a good old serrated bread knife. It's tough, bendy and the serrations slice through the roots.

If you have a collection of old bread knives that are past their useful life for you, please let us know and we can arrange to get them.

We're also after about 12 metres of chicken mesh with 25mm gaps in the mesh. 1200mm high - it fits nicely in our Containers for Change IBC and stops bottle lids falling out.

14/05/2026

Our next hands on project will be a trial clearing of the invasive perennial veldt grass from the town fire break/walk trail down to the river. It’s unsightly, contributes significantly to the fire risk and chokes out the native species of grasses, fire restrictive saltbushes and other plants.

This is not a once of event but one that will require ongoing rework each year to stop regrowth and maintain the area. To start we will target a small area, approximately 50 metres along the trail so we can manage the workload and use that as a test of the concept to see if we can make a difference. We are hoping the outcome will be a better view of the river, less invasive w**ds and reduced fire risk. Overall this will improve the river environment, bit by bit.

We are thrilled to have the interest of the Noongar Land Enterprise Group Rangers and the Beverley District High School Cadets to join us in this project and look forward to these collaborations.

Our busy bees will be fortnightly, Wednesday 8:30am to 10:00am.
27 May, 10 June, 24 June, 8 July, 22 July, 5 August, 19 August, 2 Sept, 16 Sept
And so on until we stop over summer. It’s a straight fortnightly schedule.

Meet at the river end of John Street down near the river.

Our plan is to physically remove the veldt grass with minimal soil disturbance.

More details on what to bring will come closer to the event.