Location: Canning Mills Road, Turner Road, Roleystone
Canning Mills Reserve (R34155) is situated at the top edge of the Darling Scarp. It is managed by the City of Armadale and consists of several lots totalling about 51 ha extending along the western side of Canning Mills Rd from north of Turner Road to south of Buchanan Road with a small section on the eastern side of Canning Mills Rd at the intersection with Chevin Road. Parking is available near Turner Road and opposite Urch Road. Turner Road is a closed sealed road and provides easy access for those with mobility problems. There are many tracks leading off Turner Road. It is possible to follow one of these all the way along the boundary with Banyowla Regional Park to Urch Road. There are also tracks leading from this track down and along the scarp in Banyowla Regional Park. As little as half an hour to many hours could be spent exploring this reserve.
As this reserve is at the edge of the scarp, it has a unique mix of scarp species and Jarrah-Marri forest species with considerable variation in vegetation across the reserve. In places, especially where there is lateritic gravel, Parrot Bush is abundant with scattered Marri and Jarrah interspersed with Hakeas and other shrubs. In other places with more clayey soil, there is scattered Bull Banksia, Wandoo, Balga and low shrubs. In the central part of the reserve, there is an area of low vegetation with scattered Kingia and Christmas trees growing in moist loamy soil.
Wildflowers can be seen here even in the middle of Winter with bright red Styphelia tortifolia, white Cryptandra arbutiflora and Winter Donkey orchids being especially noticeable, and there are even more flowers in Spring. Over 200 species of plant have been identified in the reserve including the threatened Star Orchid.
For a full list of the plants with photographs and their identifying features go to Roleybushcare’s Flora database here and select Canning Mills in the reserve dropdown box prior to pressing the search button. To narrow down the list when trying to identify a plant, additional attributes such as flower colour and month of flowering can also be selected.
