Green shoots have appeared in banksia woodlands bulldozed for a multi-billion-dollar road project which was axed when the WA Government changed hands in March.

The project attracted huge protests over environmental concerns and has been credited as one of the major issues which helped topple the Liberal government from power.

The rehabilitation of the Roe 8 site — which was designed to provide a link for heavy haulage trucks from Perth's east to the port — has been boosted by spraying for weeds, recent rains and removal of damaging mulch piles which were stifling regrowth.

Now Marri, grass trees and other species which typically regenerate after major bushfires are springing back, with regrowth of some plants reaching up to waist height.

The group tasked with nursing an almost 18-hectare area back to health decided to wait before replanting to see what native plants would regerminate on their own this season.

Murdoch University senior ecology lecturer Dr Rachel Standish and a team of students are systematically mapping the area.

Murdoch University biologist Dr Rachel Standish. ( ABC News: Rebecca Trigger )

She said she had been surprised with the recovery so far.

"I suppose because the clearing happened over such a short space of time and then good things were done immediately following that," she said.

"Our native species, a lot of them are adapted to a disturbance of some kind so they can re-sprout usually after fire, but we're finding they're re-sprouting after this clearing as well."

She said native birds had returned to the site but more research was needed on turtle, crayfish and frogs populations living in wetter parts of the area before the clearing.

It is not known how long it will take for the site to be fully rehabilitated, but Dr Standish said it could be decades.

The construction barriers along the cleared land have been taken down, although the site's management is still in the hands of the Roe 8 Alliance contractors.

The cost for the State Government to break construction contracts was $46.9 million, but the final cost for rehabilitation of the site remains unclear.

The previous government was criticised after a leaked briefing memo showed it could have chosen to begin Roe 8 construction in a way which would have resulted in less destruction in environmentally sensitive areas.

Police and the public meet at a protest at Western Australia's Beeliar Wetlands, where plans are underway to clear bushland for a toll road. ( ABC Open contributor LesleyT )

Rethink the Link convener Kim Dravnieks, who is involved with the recovery effort, said the Roe 8 and 9 areas needed to be designated a parks and reserve area.

"This East West link is really vital ecological corridor," she said.

"We have north-south links with the Beeliar regional park, a set of coastal [and inland lakes] ... but we have nothing that connects the east-west link.

"It's the Kings Park of the south, it's got seven distinct ecological areas, much more biodiversity than Kings Park, it's a real treasure."

A spokesman for WA Transport Minister Rita Saffioti, who sits on a committee overseeing the rehabilitation efforts, said an announcement about the site's future as a designated parkland would be made shortly.

Ms Dravnieks said it would take some time for local people's distress at losing vast swathes of local bushland to ease.

"People who found their beloved bush bulldozed just two weeks before Christmas, it was just horrific and that's something that's going to take a long time to get through," she said.