Protect the Swan Valley and honour government promises
The issue
Protect the Swan River and Swan Valley – Honour the Promise Made to Future Generations
The story of Western Australia begins on the banks of the Swan River. For more than 40,000 years, the Whadjuk Noongar people have cared for this Country. The Swan River (Derbarl Yerrigan), its floodplain and places such as Bells Rapids (Goorgoordup) hold profound cultural and spiritual significance. In Noongar tradition, the Waugal created the river and shaped this landscape, making it one of Australia's most important living cultural landscapes.
When Captain James Stirling explored the Swan River in 1827, he recognised the extraordinary fertility of its floodplain. Those rich alluvial soils became the birthplace of agriculture in Western Australia, supporting the Swan River Colony and laying the foundations for the State's food production, vineyards, orchards and rural economy.
Today, the Swan Valley remains Western Australia's oldest wine region, an internationally recognised tourism destination, a productive agricultural landscape and one of the last remaining rural floodplains within metropolitan Perth. But it is much more than that. The Swan Valley and the surrounding Special Rural communities, including Brigadoon and the Vines, form one interconnected landscape within the Swan River catchment. Together they provide an essential wildlife corridor linking the Darling Scarp to the Swan Coastal Plain. Native birds, mammals, reptiles, pollinators and countless plant species depend upon these connected habitats, while healthy bushland and floodplains protect the water quality of the Swan River itself. A healthy river depends on a healthy floodplain. This landscape filters water, recharges groundwater, reduces flooding, supports biodiversity, sustains agriculture and protects one of Perth's most important environmental systems.
It is not simply a collection of privately owned properties—it is a living ecosystem that benefits every Western Australian.
Parliament Already Established the Vision !!!!
The protections we are asking the Western Australian Government to uphold are not new.
In 2017, the then Minister for Planning, the Hon. Rita Saffioti MLA, commissioned the independent Kobelke Review to examine the future of the Swan Valley. Led by the Hon. John Kobelke AO, the review brought together Traditional Owners, residents, farmers, businesses, local government, community organisations and industry representatives to identify what made the Swan Valley unique and how it should be protected for future generations. Many of us participated in that process because we believed this landscape was worthy of lasting protection. The review recognised that the Swan Valley is a landscape of exceptional environmental, agricultural, tourism and cultural significance. Its recommendations directly informed the Swan Valley Planning Act 2020, through which Parliament established a planning framework specifically designed to protect these values. This petition is not asking Government to create new protections. It is asking Government to honour the work already undertaken, the commitments already made, and the legislation that Parliament has already enacted.
Why We Are Concerned
Many Western Australians are increasingly concerned that these protections are being weakened through incremental planning decisions that fail to consider the cumulative impacts on the Swan River catchment. Across the Swan Valley and surrounding Special Rural communities there is increasing pressure from inappropriate subdivision, vegetation clearing, incompatible land uses and planning interpretations that gradually erode the very values the legislation was created to protect. Of particular concern is the expanding interpretation of what constitutes a "home business" within Special Rural areas. Home businesses were intended to support small-scale enterprises that remain incidental to residential use. Increasingly, however, residents are seeing proposals for activities that extend beyond the traditional agricultural, equine, tourism and rural enterprises for which these areas are zoned, potentially bringing additional waste, chemical use, pollution and biosecurity considerations within the Swan River catchment.
These businesses are important to Western Australia's economy and provide valuable employment. However, activities of this nature are appropriately located in established industrial areas such as
- Midland
- Malaga
- Hazelmere
- Bullsbrook
where planning, infrastructure and services are designed to support them. Special Rural land within the Swan River catchment was never intended to become an extension of industrial estates through increasingly broad interpretations of "Home Business".
Planning exists to ensure the right development occurs in the right place. The issue is not one property or one planning application. It is the cumulative impact of many decisions that gradually change the landscape Parliament intended to protect. The Swan River, the Swan Valley and the surrounding Special Rural communities are one connected environmental system. Water, wildlife, biodiversity and ecosystems do not recognise local government boundaries. Local planning decisions therefore have consequences far beyond individual properties.
They affect matters of State, National and International significance.
We Ask the Western Australian Government To:
- Commission an independent review of planning decisions affecting the Swan Valley and surrounding Special Rural communities within the Swan River catchment.
- Honour and uphold the intent of all State and Local planning legislation, planning schemes, structure plans, subdivision approvals and zoning provisions established to protect the Swan River, the Swan Valley and surrounding Special Rural communities.
- Ensure the Swan Valley Planning Act 2020 is consistently applied as Parliament intended. Maintain the planning commitments made when Special Rural communities were established, including protecting minimum lot sizes, preventing inappropriate subdivision and ensuring land uses remain consistent with the purpose of the zoning.
- Review the interpretation of Home Business provisions to ensure they remain genuinely low-impact and incidental to residential use.
- Assess the cumulative impacts of planning decisions on the Swan River floodplain, wildlife corridors, biodiversity, agriculture, water quality and Aboriginal cultural heritage.
- Strengthen State oversight where local planning decisions may undermine matters of State significance.
Restore public confidence that planning decisions protect the long-term public interest.
This petition is not against housing.
It is not against business. Western Australia needs both.
But housing should be built where communities are planned to grow, and industrial businesses should operate in land zoned for industrial purposes.
The Swan River floodplain is not simply land available for development. It is one of Western Australia's most important environmental systems, the birthplace of agriculture in this State, part of one of the world's oldest living cultures, and a landscape that supports biodiversity, tourism, agriculture and the identity of Perth itself. Once floodplains are fragmented, wildlife corridors broken, native vegetation cleared and rural landscapes progressively urbanised or industrialised, they cannot be recreated.
The story of Western Australia begins on the banks of the Swan River. For more than 40,000 years, this landscape has sustained people, culture, wildlife and communities. The decisions we make today will determine whether it continues to do so for the next 40,000 years.
We ask the Western Australian Government to honour the vision established through the Kobelke Review, uphold the Swan Valley Planning Act 2020 and the planning protections that successive governments deliberately put in place, and ensure that the Swan River and Swan Valley remain one of Western Australia's greatest environmental, agricultural and cultural legacies.
Protect the River
Protect the Floodplain
Protect Our Future
Honour the laws
Honour the vision
Honour the promise
538
The issue
Protect the Swan River and Swan Valley – Honour the Promise Made to Future Generations
The story of Western Australia begins on the banks of the Swan River. For more than 40,000 years, the Whadjuk Noongar people have cared for this Country. The Swan River (Derbarl Yerrigan), its floodplain and places such as Bells Rapids (Goorgoordup) hold profound cultural and spiritual significance. In Noongar tradition, the Waugal created the river and shaped this landscape, making it one of Australia's most important living cultural landscapes.
When Captain James Stirling explored the Swan River in 1827, he recognised the extraordinary fertility of its floodplain. Those rich alluvial soils became the birthplace of agriculture in Western Australia, supporting the Swan River Colony and laying the foundations for the State's food production, vineyards, orchards and rural economy.
Today, the Swan Valley remains Western Australia's oldest wine region, an internationally recognised tourism destination, a productive agricultural landscape and one of the last remaining rural floodplains within metropolitan Perth. But it is much more than that. The Swan Valley and the surrounding Special Rural communities, including Brigadoon and the Vines, form one interconnected landscape within the Swan River catchment. Together they provide an essential wildlife corridor linking the Darling Scarp to the Swan Coastal Plain. Native birds, mammals, reptiles, pollinators and countless plant species depend upon these connected habitats, while healthy bushland and floodplains protect the water quality of the Swan River itself. A healthy river depends on a healthy floodplain. This landscape filters water, recharges groundwater, reduces flooding, supports biodiversity, sustains agriculture and protects one of Perth's most important environmental systems.
It is not simply a collection of privately owned properties—it is a living ecosystem that benefits every Western Australian.
Parliament Already Established the Vision !!!!
The protections we are asking the Western Australian Government to uphold are not new.
In 2017, the then Minister for Planning, the Hon. Rita Saffioti MLA, commissioned the independent Kobelke Review to examine the future of the Swan Valley. Led by the Hon. John Kobelke AO, the review brought together Traditional Owners, residents, farmers, businesses, local government, community organisations and industry representatives to identify what made the Swan Valley unique and how it should be protected for future generations. Many of us participated in that process because we believed this landscape was worthy of lasting protection. The review recognised that the Swan Valley is a landscape of exceptional environmental, agricultural, tourism and cultural significance. Its recommendations directly informed the Swan Valley Planning Act 2020, through which Parliament established a planning framework specifically designed to protect these values. This petition is not asking Government to create new protections. It is asking Government to honour the work already undertaken, the commitments already made, and the legislation that Parliament has already enacted.
Why We Are Concerned
Many Western Australians are increasingly concerned that these protections are being weakened through incremental planning decisions that fail to consider the cumulative impacts on the Swan River catchment. Across the Swan Valley and surrounding Special Rural communities there is increasing pressure from inappropriate subdivision, vegetation clearing, incompatible land uses and planning interpretations that gradually erode the very values the legislation was created to protect. Of particular concern is the expanding interpretation of what constitutes a "home business" within Special Rural areas. Home businesses were intended to support small-scale enterprises that remain incidental to residential use. Increasingly, however, residents are seeing proposals for activities that extend beyond the traditional agricultural, equine, tourism and rural enterprises for which these areas are zoned, potentially bringing additional waste, chemical use, pollution and biosecurity considerations within the Swan River catchment.
These businesses are important to Western Australia's economy and provide valuable employment. However, activities of this nature are appropriately located in established industrial areas such as
- Midland
- Malaga
- Hazelmere
- Bullsbrook
where planning, infrastructure and services are designed to support them. Special Rural land within the Swan River catchment was never intended to become an extension of industrial estates through increasingly broad interpretations of "Home Business".
Planning exists to ensure the right development occurs in the right place. The issue is not one property or one planning application. It is the cumulative impact of many decisions that gradually change the landscape Parliament intended to protect. The Swan River, the Swan Valley and the surrounding Special Rural communities are one connected environmental system. Water, wildlife, biodiversity and ecosystems do not recognise local government boundaries. Local planning decisions therefore have consequences far beyond individual properties.
They affect matters of State, National and International significance.
We Ask the Western Australian Government To:
- Commission an independent review of planning decisions affecting the Swan Valley and surrounding Special Rural communities within the Swan River catchment.
- Honour and uphold the intent of all State and Local planning legislation, planning schemes, structure plans, subdivision approvals and zoning provisions established to protect the Swan River, the Swan Valley and surrounding Special Rural communities.
- Ensure the Swan Valley Planning Act 2020 is consistently applied as Parliament intended. Maintain the planning commitments made when Special Rural communities were established, including protecting minimum lot sizes, preventing inappropriate subdivision and ensuring land uses remain consistent with the purpose of the zoning.
- Review the interpretation of Home Business provisions to ensure they remain genuinely low-impact and incidental to residential use.
- Assess the cumulative impacts of planning decisions on the Swan River floodplain, wildlife corridors, biodiversity, agriculture, water quality and Aboriginal cultural heritage.
- Strengthen State oversight where local planning decisions may undermine matters of State significance.
Restore public confidence that planning decisions protect the long-term public interest.
This petition is not against housing.
It is not against business. Western Australia needs both.
But housing should be built where communities are planned to grow, and industrial businesses should operate in land zoned for industrial purposes.
The Swan River floodplain is not simply land available for development. It is one of Western Australia's most important environmental systems, the birthplace of agriculture in this State, part of one of the world's oldest living cultures, and a landscape that supports biodiversity, tourism, agriculture and the identity of Perth itself. Once floodplains are fragmented, wildlife corridors broken, native vegetation cleared and rural landscapes progressively urbanised or industrialised, they cannot be recreated.
The story of Western Australia begins on the banks of the Swan River. For more than 40,000 years, this landscape has sustained people, culture, wildlife and communities. The decisions we make today will determine whether it continues to do so for the next 40,000 years.
We ask the Western Australian Government to honour the vision established through the Kobelke Review, uphold the Swan Valley Planning Act 2020 and the planning protections that successive governments deliberately put in place, and ensure that the Swan River and Swan Valley remain one of Western Australia's greatest environmental, agricultural and cultural legacies.
Protect the River
Protect the Floodplain
Protect Our Future
Honour the laws
Honour the vision
Honour the promise
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Petition created on 15 August 2026