Westgate Park - Naomie Sunner
Hosted by Ben Cullen
I love this place.
Westgate Park is one of those landscapes that doesn’t make sense at first. Wetlands, salt lakes and grasslands sitting beneath the West Gate Bridge, surrounded by industry and the constant movement of the city.
I met Naomie Sunner here, at a place she’s been connected to for decades. She chose the park for this walk, and it felt like the right place to tell this story.
As soon as we started walking, we were already talking, already noticing things. The mics were on, and that was it. What you hear is the walk as it happened.
Naomie shares how, in the late 1990s, as a young woman, she led and established the Friends of Westgate Park, helping transform what was once a neglected, heavily modified site into the landscape we see today.
We walk through wetlands and grasslands, stopping along the way as she reflects on those early days. Learning plants from scratch, bringing people together, and slowly rebuilding something from the ground up.
What stands out is how much of this place comes from persistence. Turning up, week after week. Learning as you go. Letting a landscape take shape over time.
The Friends of Westgate Park are still active today, an incredible community continuing that work and caring for this place.
Walking here now, it’s hard to imagine what this place once was.
If you get the chance, go and see it for yourself.