This delightful coffee table book will inspire you with its photographs and its stories of how a community saved this treasured inner-city Banksia woodlands. More than 50 people have freely contributed expertise, memories and photographs.

The purpose of the book is to increase awareness of this “jewel in the crown” of Victoria Park and to be a resource to increase community awareness of the wonders of urban bushland and the many different ways in which individuals can contribute to its conservation and restoration.

The history covers the development in and around the site since 1901, the recollections of local people who have been visiting different parts of the site since the 1950s, and information about the plants and wildlife found there over the last 100 years.

The story reflects on the impact of European settlement on a parcel of land that the Whadjuk people inhabited for over 50,000 years and its progressive conservation and restoration since 2000 in response to community pressure. The Precinct itself is within a 40Ha (100 acre) area leased to the then Municipality of Victoria Park by the State government for 999 years in 1912.