Draft Beaumont Common Management Plan

The community and Council have worked together to develop a draft management plan for the Beaumont Common with the aim to find a balance between useable open grass space and the conservation and enhancement of the Common’s important biodiversity and Grey Box trees.

Overview of the draft plan

The draft management plan provides clear instructions on how the Common will be managed and used in the future.

Implementing all the proposals in the draft management plan will result in an increase in open grass space, and a balanced split between open grass and biodiversity areas.

Key features include:

• Consistently irrigated grass areas and minimising mulch under trees within open grass spaces.
• Thinning out the denser middle storey vegetation in some areas to encourage biodiversity more typical to Grey Box forests.
• Removing some garden beds and sections of lower quality biozone areas to return to open grass space.
• A 1.5m wide compacted-rubble path to allow people of all ages and abilities to access the entire length of the Common. Signage and other controls will be implemented to deter bike-riders from the path.
• Remove six vandalised juvenile Grey Box trees and four small existing non-indigenous trees to return to open grass space.
• Replace three vandalised juvenile Grey Box trees on the western side of the site as part of a succession plan for when other trees in the reserve reach the end of their life.

The management plan also proposes to gradually remove 11 mature exotic trees but only when each tree reaches its natural end of life:

• Five of these trees are declared weed species.
• Two of these trees are within biodiversity areas and will be replaced with native Grey Box trees.
• The other nine trees are located within grass spaces and are proposed to not be replaced once they reach end of life.

As well as opening up useable open grass space, the removal of exotic species allows existing Grey Box trees to expand their canopy.

The draft management plan is based on the outcomes of a community survey and two workshops and seeks to balance the diverse views of our community.

Council is now seeking your feedback on the draft management plan.

Next steps

Based on the feedback on the draft management plan, a final plan will be prepared and reviewed by Council mid 2024.