Canning River (Western Australia)

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Passengers leaving the Silver Star river steamer ferry at Coffee Point (site of the South of Perth Yacht Club), with the old Canning Bridge in the background. ca. 1906

The Canning River (32°00′S 115°51′E) is a river in Western Australia. It is a tributary of the Swan River, starting in the Darling Scarp and meandering through suburbs of Perth, on the Swan Coastal Plain including Cannington, Thornlie, Riverton, Shelley, Rossmoyne and Mount Pleasant before joining the Swan at Melville Water, at Canning Bridge.

It, like a number of other place names in Western Australia containing the word Canning are named after George Canning, Prime Minister of England in 1827 whose government facilitated the expedition by James Stirling to establish the Swan River Colony.

Convicts contructed the Canning River Convict Fence for the use of barges carrying timber from Mason's Timber Mill in the Darling Ranges^{[1][2][3][4][5]} is a notable landmark still to this day.

The Canning River is at the back of a very famous book called "My Place" by Sally Morgan. Sally always comes and plays in the dam which then leads to Canning River. Sally loves Wild Life and this is a great way to find it, in this river.

The river is home to much wildlife including dolphins, pelicans, swans and many other bird species.

[edit] Algae Bloom

closeup of the algae Kalodinium micrum

Algal blooms occur naturally in the Canning river system, they are caused by a buildup of nutrients in the river. Human activities including farming, residentual gardens and parklands are the major causes of increases in levels, the blooms are potentially toxic to both mammal and marine life. Marine life are also affect by the reduction of sunlight reaching aquatic plants reducing food sources and by the bloom restricting the level of oxygen in the water.

The Swan River Trust monitors the levels of nutrients and growth of the algae issuing warnings and closing sections of the river to all activities. The Trust also operates cleanup programs to reduce the amount of nutrients reaching the river, as well oxygenation and phosphorus removal in areas were blooms have been identified.

before 2006

During 2007

[edit] See also

• Head of the River (Australia)
• Mount Henry

[edit] Reference

• Brearley, Anne (2005). Ernest Hodgkin's Swanland : estuaries and coastal lagoons of South-western Australia. Crawley, W.A.: University of Western Australia Press for the Ernest Hodgkin Trust for Estuary Education and Research and National Trust of Australia (WA),. ISBN 1-920694-38-2. 
• Burningham, Nick (2004). Messing About in Earnest. Fremantle Arts Centre Press. ISBN 1-920731-25-3. 
• Richards, Oline. (199). Canning River Regional Park, Western Australia : historical survey. Perth, W.A.: Dept. of Planning and Urban Development. ISBN 0-7309-3249-4. 
• Seddon, George (1970). Swan River Landscapes. Crawley, W.A.: University of Western Australia Press. ISBN 0-85564-043-X. 
• Carden, F.G. (1st Edition 1968, 2nd edition, 1991,). Along the Canning: A History of the City of Canning Western Australia, Covering its progress from Roads Board to Shire, to Town, to City City of Canning,. 

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