Mary Carroll Park Wetlands

The Mary Carroll Park wetlands, in the heart of Gosnells, provide a very important breeding, roosting and summer refuge site for local and international waterbirds.

Mary Carroll Park was named in 1971 in honour of Mrs Mary Carroll, a well-known teacher at nearby Gosnells Primary School in the first half of the twentieth century. Mrs Carroll would take her students on nature walks around and through the wetland as part of her teaching activities.

The wetlands are perched, filling with stormwater in winter and generally drying up in late summer. They support a wide range of waterbirds, including Pacific Black Duck, Musk Duck, Pink-Eared Duck, Blue-Billed Duck, Grebe, Teal, Pelican and Black Swan. They are also recognised as one of the largest roosting sites for Sacred Ibis.

They provide important waterbird breeding habitat, and are a very important regional summer refuge as smaller wetlands in Perth dry out. In addition to waterbirds, they support songbirds, reptiles, amphibians and turtles.

The wetlands are recognised by the state government, being mapped as Conservation management classification wetlands in the Department of Parks and Wildlife's Geomorphic Wetlands (Swan Coastal Plain) Dataset, and listed as a regionally significant Bush Forever Site, number 124.

The Friends of Mary Carroll Wetlands work with the City of Gosnells to manage the wetlands and their surrounds. The aim of the group is to rehabilitate, conserve and maintain the natural environment of the wetlands, and to promote community awareness of their important values.

The Group undertakes many activities including:

• Revegetation
• Weed control
• Education
• Litter clean up
• Seed collection
• Turtle watch
• Frog watch
• Yellow fish drain stencilling
• Eco Walks and Talks

If you’d like to become involved with the Friends of Mary Carroll Wetlands, or just to help out from time to time, please contact Unice Robinson on 9398 7126 or 0434 831 230.