From cleared farmland to growing habitat for Western Australia’s black cockatoos

Sixteen years after restoration began at Abercorn Road in Mundaring, Western Australia, new imagery is showing just how much this former grazing property has changed.

From cleared farmland in 2010, to dense forest habitat in 2026

Greening Australia’s Director of Impact, Dr Blair Parsons, recently revisited the 54-hectare site and the imagery he captured shows a developing woodland – an incredible progression from the largely bare paddock we began restoring in 2010.

This project was delivered by Greening Australia and Water Corporation as part of a biodiversity offset program to establish habitat for Carnaby’s, Baudin’s and Forest Red-tailed Black Cockatoos. At the time, the cleared, former agricultural land was considered marginal for grazing, being dominated by weeds, with compacted soils and very little native vegetation remaining.

Today, an overstorey layer is establishing across the site, beginning to provide food and habitat resources as intended for WA’s threatened black cockatoos as well as for a range of other native wildlife. Carnaby’s Black Cockatoos have been observed foraging among the site’s mature Marri and Jarrah trees.

“The foundations were laid in 2010 by our restoration ecologists and Water Corporation, and sixteen years later their importance is clear. I’ve watched it develop from early stages in 2015, through dense, shrubby growth in 2019 to something increasingly forest-like in 2026. The understorey is opening up, canopy is establishing, and the structure is beginning to resemble mature forest. With hollows and richer habitat structure still to develop, I suspect the best is yet to come.”

Dr. Blair Parsons, Director of Impact, Greening Australia

Rebuilding habitat from the ground up

3km exclusion fence to keep the hungry and destructive kangaroos and rabbits out

Before seeding and planting began in 2010, a controlled burn was undertaken to reduce the weed seedbank, followed by pest management and the construction of a three-kilometre exclusion fence to protect establishing vegetation from rabbits and kangaroos.  Protection of the emerging vegetation from intense herbivory was critical to its initial success and ongoing growth given the site is surrounded by existing forest on three sides.

Then, using direct seeding machines, restoration crews sowed 54 kilograms of locally collected seed from more than 30 native species across the 54 hectares. The direct seeders also removed weed-heavy topsoil, giving the newly establishing native vegetation an ideal niche within which to grow.

Almost 120,000 tubestock seedlings of canopy and understorey species were also planted. Marri, Jarrah, Wandoo and banksias were among the native species installed across the site.

Direct Seeding in 2010

From early establishment to developing woodland

Incredible growth seen at the site just 5 years later

Less than five years later in 2015, monitoring showed that the project had exceeded its initial restoration targets for habitat density and height, plant diversity, understorey richness, and weed reduction.

Target plant species for black cockatoo habitat reached a density of 0.26 stems per square metre against a target of 0.25. Their mean height reached 202.5 centimetres, compared with a target of 100 centimetres, while understorey richness reached 30 species against a target of 15. Weed cover was recorded at 15.75%, below the maximum target of 20%.

The photographs from this period tell the same story visually. Where the 2010 images show largely bare ground and the lines of the direct seeding works, by 2015 young native vegetation was establishing across the property.

Sixteen years of change

2026 – A dense forest full of marri and jarrah trees

And now, as you can see by the image above, a dense canopy extends across the entire site. These drone shots taken by Blair shows how the restored vegetation now stands alongside the surrounding remnant bushland, improving habitat connectivity.

As the Marri and Jarrah mature, they are providing important food resources for Carnaby’s, Baudin’s and Forest Red-tailed Black Cockatoos, with the potential to provide nesting habitat in the future. The increase in native vegetation also means there’s more habitat for other wildlife in the area.

This site’s transformation shows that restoration is a long-term process, with the work started today continuing to shape habitat for decades to come.

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