Perth Voice Interactive

TINA ASKAM will take residents on a scratch and sniff tour of Maylands as part of her walking exhibition—here’s hoping it won’t include an off-the-leash dog park.

The exhibition is the culmination of two years’ research by Askam, a PhD candidate, which involved 50 walks with locals, aged eight to 80, through the suburban heart of Maylands.

The Edith Cowan Uni student is researching whether there are tangible benefits to officials and property developers walking with residents before making decisions that affect the community.

The exhibition will be held in the old Maylands Police Station on Guildford Road and include guided tours of Maylands with Ms Aksam.

“On the walks you can discover important places that would have been lost to the bulldozers were it not for the action of Maylands residents; how ancient trees or a bumpy old bridge can make people feel connected to their neighbourhood; and you’ll even get an opportunity to complain about traffic and bad parking,” she says.

The exhibition, to be held in the first weekend of May, coincides with Jane’s Walks, an international movement of free citizen-led walking tours, which will be take place in thousands of suburbs and cities across six continents, from Toronto to Mumbai.

Ms Askam says she led a Jane’s Walk tour in Maylands in 2013.

“Not only did 32 people turn up, but they brought along two bikes, a pram, three dogs and a cockatoo,” she laughs.

“It was great fun and I had people asking me to do the walk again.

“One of the walks, titled ‘Scratch and sniff Maylands: a feast for the senses’, highlights the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of Maylands,

“If you scratch a little bit below the surface you discover the many interesting things that make Maylands unique, which are easy to miss when you’re speeding by in a car”.

The walks are named after Jane Jacobs, an urbanist who held a strong belief that people were the experts of the places they worked, lived and played.

“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because and only when, they are created by everybody” wrote Ms Jacobs in The Life and Death of American Cities.

Some 1013 Jane’s Walks took place in 2014 with more than 20,00 participants.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK