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Donovan Street reserve story to be told

Therese ColmanThe West Australian

The story of Augusta’s Donovan Street reserve began as a proposed site for housing development, and is now crown land at the centre of an upcoming book.

Augusta’s Kings Park is a book that will be produced by the Environmental Research Group Augusta and will cover the history, geology, diverse flora and fauna of the area, and provide details of walk trails through the Donovan Street reserve.

Co-editor and ERGA member Don Bradshaw said the Augusta community rallied together when it found out the area was proposed for development.

“It’s hard to get the people of Augusta to agree on the day of the week, but there was an overwhelming agreeance for keeping the piece of land as is,” he said.

“Once the Shire agreed to preserve the area, we did a biodiversity study which came back with wonderful results.”

The reserve is home to 300 species, including seven species of mammals, 200 variety of fungi and 47 species of orchids.

The draft book’s introduction explains how granite rocks that border the reserve and the estuary were fragments of Gondwana, when the Australian continent split from India.

Dr Bradshaw said 3000 copies of the book would be printed, with funds raised from the gold-coin donation purchase price to go to ERGA to support future research.

The book is expected mid-2018.

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