Names of Mt Martin Regional Botanic Park committee members are engraved on a granite slab seat which overlooks Emu Point channel to the park which is now managed by the Department of Conservation.

However, former committee chairman Dennis Greeve said it was important for Albany residents to remember they remained owners of the four hectare Voyager Park on the edge of the channel.

“This remains the most historic spot in Albany where the first mariners landed,” he said.

“It was ceded to the people of Albany in 1938 by the Australian Government (to celebrate the Commonwealth’s 150th year) and can’t be taken away.”

Comprising local conservationists, the committee worked from 1993 to 2007 to manage and develop the park to highlight the enormous variety of flora and fauna on the city’s doorstep.

Eleven kilometres of pathways were established with help from Green Corps and the flora and fauna surveyed.

But with limited funds and lack of general community support, it was unable to carry on its role.

The City in turn decided it could no longer support the park’s management and in 2007 asked the Department of Environment and Conservation to take it over.

The botanic park which extended from Ledge Beach to the Emu Point channel, was linked with the Gull Rock National Park.

Mr Greeve said loss to the community of the botanic park was a shame.

He said it was such an important asset that visiting botanists once claimed it was a unique asset being so close to a city.

“Some of the native flowers found over there cannot be found anywhere else in Albany,” Mr Greeve said.

Voyager Park is documented as being used by one explorer after another during their trips to the southern coast of Australia.

The first explorer to set foot there was George Vancouver who camped overnight when he couldn’t return to his ship after gathering oysters in 1796.