Looking north to the site which is located to the right of the gravel path
The Black Cockatoo Pocket Forest project is being undertaken by volunteers with the Transition Town Vincent (TTV) and with support from Dr Grey Coupland and the City of Vincent.
Project NewsWe hosted a very successful workshop: Transform your yard or courtyard into a carbon sink in Leederville on Sunday afternoon 16th March. Click here to access the workshop proceedings including slides. The slides include a presentation by Dr Grey Coupland. National Tree Day advised in early April that we were successful in our bid for a grant to fund the acquisition of plants for the Black Cockatoo Forest (loud cheer). There will be tours of the proposed Black Cockatoo Forest site and associated Nature Hub as well as composting and associated ‘how to make compost’ workshops through April as follows:
Meet at Britannia Food Forest just before 9am. Contact Ian at ian.kininmonth@ttv.org.au to register your interest. |
Specific objectives of the project are:
- To provide residents and others with a local demonstration of how to transform urban land and soil into a carbon sink focusing on providing native habitat for Black Cockatoo’s.
- To build the capacity for residents and others to restore soil carbon and biodiversity in inner city yards and courtyards.
The site will provide a local demonstration of how to restore habitat and soil carbon using the principles developed by Dr Akira Miyawaki and adapted to Perth conditions by Dr Coupland. It will also provide a training ground for those residents who want to establish a pocket forest in their yard or courtyard as part of their My Healthy Soils Project. Pocket forests:
- can be achieved with as little as 3 square metres of area
- contain 3 to 5 native plants per square metre
- reach maturity up to 10 times faster than traditional planting methods
A key part of the Miyawaki methodology is building up the soil organic matter and carbon before planting and colonising it with microbes from nearby bushland. A major point of difference to other pocket forests established in Perth will be the use of FOGO compost and biochar in the initial soil preparation which will provide the resistant carbon e.g. charcoal found in natural soils. The site will also be colonised with soil organisms (e.g. bacteria, fungi) from nearby bushland. In this way, restoration of the soil biodiversity will receive similar attention to the above ground biodiversity.
The origins of the Black Cockatoo Forest can be traced back to two events which TTV hosted in 2024. The showing of the documentary Black Cockatoo Crisis highlighted the plight of Black Cockatoo’s across south western Australia and in particular the ongoing loss of habitat and associated tree canopy cover in urban Perth. Subsequently we were inspired by Dr Grey Coupland’s talk Pocket Forest’s for the Inner City which we hosted in September which provides a pathway for restoring habitat in the inner city, starting with the underlying soil.
Schedule of activities
| Task | Status | Notes |
| Project plan | Done | |
| Site plan | Done | |
| Flora survey | Done | |
| Plant list | In prep. | |
| Soil analysis | To do | |
| Order plants | To do | |
| Prepare compost and biochar | In prep./Ongoing | Biochar being inoculated with compost |
| Source soil microbes | To do | |
| Planting day 1 (end of May 2025) | To do |
| Planting day 2 (National Tree Day 27/7/2025) | To do | |
| Monitoring | To do | |
| Communication plan | To do | |
| Prepare educational material | In prep./Ongoing |
Volunteer
To volunteer with this project or to be kept up to date with project news please email info@ttv.org.au
More information
For more information about pocket forests check out this website, video or listen to this podcast. This series of videos provides a very good overview of the process.
The Eddystone Primary School Pocket Forest site after 22 months
For further information contact ian.kininmonth@ttv.org.au
Location of the proposed pocket forest
