Perth Voice Interactive

Brickworks

THE extant Maylands Brickworks are well known, but this week the Maylands Historical and Peninsula Association hosts a talk delving into the lesser-known story of a much older brickworks operating on the river banks in the mid-1800s.

Researcher Bevan Carter has dug out the tale of a clay pit, pug mill, brick cutter and kiln run by Henry Gray, a colourful early figure involved in various 19th century stoushes in the newspapers and courts. 

Promising “a fascinating tale of controversy, violence and struggles”, the talk is Monday July 17 at the old dining room of the Old Peninsula Hotel, 7.15pm and it’s free entry with a cash raffle.

Common Ground

THE long-awaited and delayed East Perth Common Ground housing facility finally has a builder contracted, with ADCO Constructions lined up to deliver the $70 million development.

The project will have 112 self-contained apartments on the corner of Wellington and Hill Streets providing a mix of permanent housing for homeless people and low-income earners, plus integrated support services.

The Labor state government first announced Common Ground in 2019 and construction was meant to start in the 2021/22 financial year.

But the search for a tenderer to build it fell apart mid-2022 when no satisfactory contractor was found, and a second search was launched late 2022.

Construction’s now scheduled to start late 2023.

Not so snap

SNAP, send… someday solve? The new quick and easy ‘Snap Send Solve’ app to report minor problems to councils has been criticised for taking far longer than a phone call to get a response.

Noranda resident Harvey Tonkin told Bayswater councillors and staff at the July 10 AGM that he’d recently reported broken glass at a playground using the app.

He heard nothing back. At some point in the following days the situation was rectified, “but it was about five days later I received a response from a staff member advising that we’ve notified the staff in the particular department” that’d be responsible for removing the glass.

He said if he’d called them he’d have likely got a same day response, meaning the quick and simple ‘smart’ phone technology was outpaced by the more traditional use of the phone.

Bayswater CEO Jeremy Edwards pledged to look into it and see if they could speed up the tech/customer interface.