Reserves

Albany's residents and visitors can enjoy a wide range of scenic, recreational and social experiences on reserves in the City, some of which form part of Australia's only recognised international bio-diversity hotspot. The City of Albany is responsible for the management of over 600 Crown reserves occupying more than 138,000 hectares. The Department of Environment and Conservation and other government agencies manage further reserves in the City of Albany and the Great Southern.

The reserve network managed by the City is categorised into two broad divisions: bush and coastal reserves, and urban parks and spaces.

Australians enjoy the outdoor experiences that nature reserves and coastal locations provide. Bush and coastal reserves within the City of Albany are subjected to considerable human pressure from off-road vehicles (banned within City reserves), day visitation, fishing, camping, bushwalking, tourism and wood collecting. With human activity comes an increase in bushfire threat; litter; damage to flora; demand for access tracks, roads and amenities; and need to police anti-social behaviour.

Bush and coastal reserves maintain a diverse range of plant and animal species and the community has an obligation to ensure that those species survive for future generations to enjoy. From time to time, the City may also be required to close sections of reserves to allow for rehabilitation of degraded areas, for safety reasons and to manage an incident within the reserve.

A number of reserve management plans have been prepared by the City to inform the community about the issues in that reserve and the Council's response to reconciling competing interests.

Within urban areas, parks contain a range of recreational and social opportunities, depending upon the size and location of the park. The City of Albany has planned to provide a range of family parks (similar to Eyre Park) throughout the City, with community parks (containing a broad range of recreational facilities) and local parks (containing a single piece of equipment) scattered within suburbs.

To improve the amenity of Albany, the City is continually reviewing the standard and content of its urban parks and streets.

To protect the facilities that the City provides to the public, everyone is encouraged to follow some simple guidelines: respect other users of the reserve; behave appropriately; properly dispose of rubbish; use only road-registered vehicles and stay on the beach or firebreaks; do not light open fires; and report any fires (000), damage (1800 333 000 or 9841 9333) and injured wildlife (9842 4500).