A proposed road through a much-loved bush corridor in Churchlands has been met with community and scientific resistance.

The City of Stirling has put forward the idea for a connector road between Pearson Street and Empire Avenue to reduce traffic congestion and shortcuts through the Churchland Greens residential estate.

The Save Churchlands Bushland group has petitioned the WA Legislative Council to reject the proposal. It believes the road will disrupt the Herdsman Lake and Bold Park ecosystem, by destroying tree canopy for native birds including the endangered Red Tailed and Black Carnaby’s Cockatoo. The petition has currently received more than 500 signatures.

Lee Katavatis is the principal petitioner and the founder of the Save Churchlands Bushland group.

Ms Katavatis says the bushland corridor is a critical pathway for birds and animals to travel in the area and is also a cherished asset to the community.

Associate Professor Bill Bateman, from Curtin University, is a wildlife biologist who has conducted research on animal behaviour and conservation. He’s disappointed with the plan.

He says despite urban areas being generally considered bad for biodiversity, it is evident that lots of native animals in Western Australia persist in them. He thinks we should see that as an opportunity for conservation.

“One of the most important things we need to maintain are corridors, links between the green areas. As soon as we start removing them, even if something like a bird can find a different way of flying from one resource to another, a whole bunch of other animals such as small mammals and reptiles, and other birds which don’t fly so far, are going to really suffer,” he says.

He also says the bushland corridor in Churchlands contains valuable Banksia patches.

“Banksia woodland is now an endangered habitat type along the coastal plane. It seems a great pity that it’s going to be lost as opposed to being cherished and preserved,” he says.

The City of Stirling wrote to Churchlands MP Christine Tonkin in May, requesting the state government fund the design of the road.

The area is currently part of the Metropolitan Regional Scheme, which is managed by Main Roads. In the 1950’s there was a draft for “Stephenson Highway” to run through the area, connecting Bold Park to the Stirling City Centre. But this road failed to materialise and the state government has no intention in delivering it.

Ms Tonkin argues the land was previously reserved for a road 70 years ago, which would have been twice the size of what is being proposed.

She declined an interview but provided the Western Independent with a statement.

“What everyone seems to forget is that the Churchlands bushland is situated on a highway reserve that was planned to require the reservation 60 metres wide. The proposed connector road would have a reservation of 20 metres,” she says.

Ms Katavatis described the comment as a “dead argument.”

“It was written in the 1950’s, and probably at that time, it was a well thought out plan. But even within that plan, they acknowledged that things would need to change as time went on,” she says.

According to an overview provided by MP Tonkin, the connector road would impact about 30 per cent of the bushland, and the City of Stirling has estimated it would cost $13 million.

Both Ms Tonkin and the City of Stirling want the reserve removed from the MRS, and placed under the local council’s jurisdiction.

Professor Kingsley Dixon is a renown botanist who served as the Foundation Director of Science at Kings Park and Botanic Garden for 32 years.

He says the Churchlands’ bush corridor is significant because there are hardly any similar areas left which haven’t been cleared.

“If you had asked me 20 years ago, I would say there are lots in similar condition,” he says.

Professor Dixon was invited to assess the area by the Save Churchlands Bush group. He was shown one Jarrah tree which he believes to be around 400 years old, and he says there are probably other large old trees.

“In any other country developed in sophisticated Western democracy, one would expect there would be protection, but there’s very little. We need to move from a frontier mentality to a protect, conserve and pause mentality,” he says.

Professor Dixon also says the area could be significant to Indigenous Australians.

“For them with the fragments that are remaining, any bit, even if it doesn’t have direct evidence matters to them in their spiritual reconnection to country…It (the bush) is their cathedral, and I think that sort of puts a whole different lens on it. When you understand that for them to heal as a culture, they have to reconnect spiritually. You don’t do that by demolishing their cathedrals,” he says.

The City of Stirling Mayor Mark Irwin declined an interview due to the council currently having a lack of detail on the plan.

It is expected that the City will open the project up to community consultation in the near future.