Perth Voice Interactive

SEVENTY friends of the threatened black cockatoos braved rainstorms in Kings Park to hold a demonstration calling on new premier Roger Cook to step up and protect what’s left of the cockatoos’ habitat and food trees.

The demonstration – planned long before the weather forecasts could’ve warned of June 5’s battering downpour – conveniently involved every participant bringing a black or red umbrella to collectively form the shape of a forest red-tailed black cockatoo.

The red-tail is one of three black cockatoo species threatened by removal of jarrah trees, Gnangara pines, and the few patches of remaining wheatbelt bush. 

Save the Black Cockatoos Coalition campaign coordinator Paddy Cullen said: “We weathered a storm today, but the Black Cockatoos are weathering a storm every day as we destroy their forest and woodland habitat.

“As umbrella species for the south west Australian biodiversity hotspot, saving them means we are saving all the threatened species in the south west.

“Ultimately saving the Black Cockatoos will save ourselves too. The biodiverse forests and woodlands where they are vital to our fight to draw down carbon and stop the worst impacts of climate change.”

A THREE-person overseas council trip to China to study how trackless trams work will cost Stirling ratepayers about $18,000.

The council’s been investigating a trackless tram route from Glendalough Train Station to Scarborough Beach using trackless trams, and in 2020 received $2 million in federal funding to write a business case.

Trackless trams have been described as “arguably an elaborate bus” by public transit advocate Daniel Bowen on his long-running transport blog. They run on batteries and are a bit smoother than an average bus ride.

The council’s working with Chinese state-owned manufacturer CRRC to conduct a trial in Perth in October 2023, and after CRRC representatives visited Stirling in May a return visit is now planned.

The initial travel plans only included mayor Mark Irwin, a key advocate of Stirling’s trackless tram venture, and the council’s manager of strategy and performance, Michelle Wolsoncroft. 

But at the May 30 meeting Cr Stephanie Proud said: “So I was just wondering. Um. Would it be right and proper for the DM to go with you?”

The DM is ‘deputy mayor’. The deputy mayor is Cr Proud.

Cr Proud said “I’m actually serious” and the council agreed to add her to the trip.

All three will travel to Shanghai from July 9 to 13 to travel on the commercial trackless tram service in Lingang, visit test sites in Lingang 

and Nanjing, and tour the manufacturing workshop.

The estimated cost per person is $3,424 for economy airfares, and $2,433 for 7 nights accommodation, including overnight layovers in Singapore both ways.

One resident queried the spend at public question time. Roland Hadley of Woodlands asked “didn‚Äôt staff members visit China some years previously for the same reason?”

Mr Irwin said he was happy to take that question “offline” to discuss it further.

Mr Hadley was right: In 2019 the council spent $8,000 to send planning manager Fraser Henderson on a trackless tram tour to visit China, France, Germany, and Sweden. Mr Henderson has since moved jobs to another council.

“Sounds like a Chinese junket to me,” Mr Hadley commented of the newest trip. 

Elizabeth Re was the only councillor to oppose the spend.

“It’s only a couple of years ago that we sent Fraser – Mr Henderson,” Cr Re said, and noted Mr Henderson had provided a report about what he’d learned. 

Cr Re also argued they were still waiting on final costings and still needed federal funding for the overall project, as public transport wasn’t usually in local government’s purview. 

Mr Irwin said this trip was about “due diligence”.

“The reason for this visit is very different than the last visit,” which had occurred when trackless trams were very new. This time they’d be seeing “the exact model of the tram” that’d be used in the trial here.

OPENING a homeless drop-in centre in inner-city neighbourhoods will be harder under new rules approved by Perth councillors that’ll give them more power to scrutinise applications.

The new rules stemmed from a stoush with the state government in mid-2022 after the homeless services charity Ruah wanted to move its drop-in centre to James Street.

Many nearby residents and small business owners objected, and Perth councillors voted against Ruah’s plan.

But a quirk in planning policy meant their decision was on shaky ground: A drop-in centre is a “community” use, and the council’s own planning scheme says “community” uses are a “preferred use” in most of their inner-city neighbourhoods like Northbridge, East Perth, West Perth, and around the Claisebrook inlet.

Its scheme says such preferred uses don’t have to be advertised to the public when a new premises wants to open up, and applicants “cannot be refused based on the merit of the land use”. That means a community theatre could be opened as easily as a library, hospital or a homeless services centre. 

In September 2022, planning minister Rita Saffioti stepped in to overrule the council’s decision and allow Ruah to move the drop-in centre to James Street. 

That shortcut what would otherwise be a hearing at the State Administrative Tribunal, where the council probably would have lost its case anyway.

At the time Cr Brent Fleeton moved a motion to change “community” uses to the “contemplated” category, giving council far more discretion in whether to allow a homeless centre to open up. 

At the May 30 meeting councillors endorsed the change with a 7-to-1 vote, with deputy lord mayor Liam Gobbert opposed.

Cr Fleeton said it closed a “loophole” in the city’s planning scheme, however the council still needs the rule to be rubber-stamped by the WA Planning Commission before it takes effect.

by DAVID BELL

MORE tree removals will be allowed at Mount Lawley Golf Club after a split vote from Stirling council endorsed the removal of another 41.

It’s also been revealed – after extensive questioning from determined residents – that the club has previously removed 22 trees without council approval.

The prestigious members-only club sits on 79 acres of state-owned A-Class Reserve vested with Stirling council. MLGC pays about $13,000 a year in rent, about half the market rate, and does not pay rates. 

In recent years the club has planted several thousand smaller low-lying endemic trees to restore degraded islands of remnant bushland areas set back from the playing field. 

But it’s the removal of some of the bigger, older trees lining the playing areas that has attracted concerted opposition in the past 18 months. 

Forage

Many of those are non-endemic to that part of WA, but Leisha Jack from the conservationist community group Stirling Urban Tree Network said at the May 30 council meeting “non-endemic trees on that site do provide food for black cockatoos and other animals that forage. 

“I have photographs, which I took myself, at the black cockatoo count this year. Black cockatoos, red tails, foraging in the non-endemic eastern states’ eucalyptus. I have lots of photographs of them foraging in the pines, which the City approved for them to remove.”

Stirling council officers have conceded the club has already removed 22 trees without approval, but staff said it was “ambiguous” as to whether they needed approval and mayor Mark Irwin said there would be no fines issues.

The club’s “Vegetation Management Plan” presented to councillors at the May 30 meeting requests permission to remove another 62 trees over the next two years to “deal with problematic vegetation negatively impacting bushland or golf playing areas”. Stirling staff advised that 41 of those removals can be supported and recommended councillors “work with the club in support of implementation of the plan”.

The vegetation management plan replaces an older draft masterplan that sought to remove some 600 trees over 10 years.

Mr Irwin is a big supporter of the club and disclosed an impartial interest in the item 

“as he has attended the club on numerous occasions”. He relinquished his spot chairing the meeting, then delivered an impassioned defence of the golf club from the floor.

“I still can’t really understand why this has become such a big issue,” Mr Irwin said of the extensive grilling the council’s received during public question time at many recent meetings.

“Personally I’ve had enough of this club being accused of doing something wrong. The club itself has done nothing wrong here,” Mr Irwin said, satisfied with the extensive new plantings of thousands of smaller trees and shrubs to replace the trees being removed.

“And now we’re hearing that’s not good enough because they’re not big enough. I mean give me a break, they’ve got to grow, they’ve got to grow. 

“All trees start as a small tree and grow into big trees.”

However none of the endemic species selected to replace the removed trees are likely to reach anywhere near the height of the non-endemic eucalypts which stretch from 20m to 25m tall.

Four councillors – Felicity Farrelly, David Lagan, Karlo Perkov and Lisa Thornton – voted against the item. 

A furious Cr Lagan said: “I may lose the vote here tonight but I won’t support it when we’ve been told by our own officers 22 trees were removed illegally. God knows how many more, but I know of 22-”

Mr Irwin interjected: “Point of order – there is no indication that they were removed illegally.”

Cr Lagan responded: 

“They were removed without permission… we have an officer who is supposed to give permission. What do we do with other leaseholders? Do we say you can remove any tree you want without permission?”

But the 41 new tree removals were endorsed by a majority of councillors: Andrea Creado, Michael Dudek, Tony Krsticevic, Suzanne Migdale, Teresa Olow, Stephanie Proud, Elizabeth Re, Bianca Sandri, and Mr Irwin.

Given what a council staffer described as “ambiguity” as to whether the club needed permission to remove trees, the councillors also voted for a clause saying “all future tree removal requests… [will] be determined by council’s tree delegate”.  

by DAVID BELL

 

THE former professional head of Australia’s submarine fleet says any tensions caused by signing the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine deal are probably “valid and useful”.

Retired commodore Peter Scott has just written a memoir of his underwater career, which included active service in Iraq, the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan in 2006/07, and says Australia needed to acquire the nuclear-powered submarines it will buy as part of AUKUS.

“AUKUS is the optimal pathway for acquiring nuclear submarine capability and is very well articulated, very necessary, and very achievable,” Scott told the Herald. 

“I think that for as long as nuclear-powered submarines have existed, Australia has actually needed that capability. “

He says the tension created by signing the AUKUS deal was useful and deliberate. 

“I think the AUKUS deal is having an impact.

“It’s designed to do. 

It’s demonstrating that together with our allies, we value our sovereignty. We value our independence. 

“And we’re willing to invest and act to protect our sovereignty and our independence and our prosperity. 

“So, if that is causing tension anywhere, then it’s probably a valid and useful tension.”

Scott takes the reader into life aboard a submarine with Running Deep: An Australian Submarine Life, and says the idea was to raise people’s awareness about their importance to Australia’s defence, as well as something of a recruitment pitch. 

“[Running Deep] is a memoir, of course. So, it’s very much been shaped and influenced by the life that I’ve led. 

“Not so much research, but absolutely the work that I did with the Navy was a fundamental influence on the content and the style of the memoir that I’ve written.

“For most Australians, service in submarines is an exotic and a largely unknowable way of life.

“I am also conscious that submarines are increasingly important for our national defence and security. 

“I’ve got many years of experience, working at different levels, in submarines and submarine capability. 

“I was inspired to write Running Deep to offer people insight into what is genuinely a real way of life, and also to offer a greater appreciation of the value of our submarines as a deterrent, or an offensive capability. 

“And perhaps a further hope is that I might be able to inspire some further generations of Australian submariners.”

The book is organised chronologically, and follows the three main phases of his navy career.

He signed up as a 17-year-old midshipman in 1983 and rose to hold multiple command posts. The final phase of his career saw him move into more strategic roles, such as advising the Chief of Navy on all matters submarine.

Scott hopes Running Deep will give the average reader insight into “what it takes to serve at sea, in the boats, and also what it means to be an Australian submariner.” 

He says the book will be important for current submariners as it fleshes out how they see themselves “connected to the wider Australian population that they serve”.

Scott points out several lessons and themes for the reader to focus on.

“There are some stories and perhaps some lessons on a couple of themes like survival, resilience, and leadership. 

“And while the book doesn’t aim to be a lecture on any of those, I think if people are looking for examples and ways to survive, challenges, overcome adversity and be resilient in the face of adversity and to lead others in complex and demanding environments, then there’s certainly something to take from the book in that regard.

“In my early years in the navy, I was impressed by [submarines’] capability. They are designed and built as offensive weapons of war. They’re built to sink ships and other submarines.”

Scott was also initially a little daunted once the hatch closed and the outside world seemed remote. 

“They’re very complex systems and they demand exceptionally well-trained people to operate them. And they demand a lot of great teamwork to operate them well.

“They [submarines] impressed me. They challenged me. 

“But also, you know, I found a home in submarines; I was always very at home, in the boats going out to sea and doing what we needed to do, and working with tremendous people who were similarly inspired by challenge and purpose. 

“So, yeah, I like submarines, and I like submariners.

Since retiring from the navy, Scott has been working as an executive coach.

“I help executive leaders to develop, perform and succeed at whatever it is that they aim to be successful at. 

“With the book launched, and once I get through a little bit of marketing efforts, I expect I’ll have more capacity to do more of the executive coaching. And, as I say, it’ll help other leaders to develop and achieve in their own way.

“Certainly, if they’re thinking about joining the submarine arm, they could do no better than to buy a copy of Running Deep: An Australian Submarine Life and have a read.”

By Ariana Rosenberg

Running Deep: An Australian Submarine Life
Peter Scott
Fremantle Press 

IDEAS are sought for the future of the Pickle District with Vincent council now consulting on its draft plan to protect and enhance the area’s cultural credentials.

Just south of Newcastle Street, the old industrial area has been revitalised into an arts hub the past few years with its empty warehouses and factories hosting creative industry reclaimers. 

“We know the Pickle District is a well-loved precinct with galleries, photography studios, cafes and events such as the town team’s fantastic After Dark event,” mayor Emma Cole said in a media statement about the pickle plan, referring to a recent art crawl evening that saw the old industrial area filled with flaneurs on May 5.

But the area’s future is under a cloud with a huge Bunnings store to take over a large portion after winning approval from state government-appointed Development Assessment Panel members in 2022.

More developments are likely as the area continues to be rejuvenated, so the draft plan aims to keep it arty. 

Proposed clauses would incentivise developers to provide affordable housing or offer space for arts and community uses at peppercorn prices.

The draft plan is up at imagine.vincent.wa.gov.au and there’s a drop-in session on Monday, June 19 at 4pm to 8pm at Vincent’s HQ on the corner of Vincent and Loftus Streets.

by DAVID BELL

AFTER many years of being unprofitably named “Leederville Oval”, a new corporate sponsorship deal is 

on the horizon for the sporting venue.

WA transport company Sullivan Logistics has expressed interested in buying naming rights.

Leederville Oval, which hosts East Perth and Subiaco WAFL clubs, hasn’t had a corporate name since 2016 when a 10-year deal with Medibank expired. 

A Vincent council report says “the City and clubs have since tried, unsuccessfully, to attract sponsors”. A tender in 2017 attracted no submissions.

Last year the clubs hired Playbookx to find a sponsor, and they came across footy-mad Sullivans Logistics, who also sponsor WAFL and WAFL-women’s finals.

The deal with Sullivan is worth about $120,000 over three years and it’d buy their name on signage, branding, and any promo materials for events at the oval. 

Playbookx gets 20 per cent commission for setting up the deal, and remaining cash is split three ways between East Perth and Subiaco football clubs and Vincent council. 

Only one councillor objected to the deal going ahead. Cr Ashley Wallace said at the May 16 ordinary meeting: “I just strongly object to selling the naming rights to Leederville Oval for such a paltry sum.”

Paltry

He said the oval was a significant piece of community infrastructure and the name “gives us a strong sense of place and ownership to the local community. I know we’re not the richest council… but I don’t see that as a reason to give that up for this sum of money here”.

But the oval costs the council a lot to maintain and the clubs are in need of cash, so a majority of councillors voted to put the idea out for public comment for at least two weeks.

If there are any submissions it goes back to council for another vote, otherwise the deal will go ahead.

by DAVID BELL

DRAG queen story time will go ahead at Maylands Library this month despite opponents escalating their opposition with in-person protests at Perth city library’s event in May.

After running for years without so much as a murmur against the events, drag queen Cougar Morrison was targeted by anonymous flyers in March by someone opposed to her reading kids books while in elaborate femme costume (Voice, April 1, 2023).

Drag story opponents escalated their protests by turning up in-person to oppose a May 17 drag queen story hour at City of Perth Library, which went ahead with police standing between protesters who held signs with slogans like “destroy pedo freaks”.

The next event at Maylands Library is due to go ahead on June 17 and Bayswater, and it’s attracted opposition from prominent anti-government activist/conspiracy theorist Dave Oneeglio, who contacted Bayswater council calling for their Maylands Library event to be cancelled.

Mr Oneeglio publicly posted his complaint, saying he didn’t have a problem with drag queens at adult venues, but arguing “by allowing transvestites to read books to children, you are actually opening a doorway for children to be exploited by predators”.

He asked: “Can you guarantee there are no long-term negative psychological effects of drag story time for children?”

Other online campaigners posted similar missives. 

Bayswater council’s response to Mr Oneeglio was polite but firm: “The City remains committed to its values of inclusion, tolerance and diversity and will proceed with this Drag Queen Storytime event as part of the range of events offered in response to community needs.”

Basywater’s response to Mr Oneeglio, who made a name for himself protesting government Covid mandates as he is a big supporter of individual liberties, stated: “Given that all families are different, parents and carers will have different views on what activities are suitable for their own children to participate in.

“The City respects the decisions of parents and carers to determine which activities are suitable for their children and therefore their decision to attend library events.

“This storytime event has been advertised in a way that is considered straight-forward and in no way misguides anyone as to the uniqueness of it. The content of the storytime is considered suitable for children. 

“The feedback from the City of Bayswater community regarding these events has been overwhelmingly positive.”

When the Voice checked the event listing this week the page was “unavailable”. However a call to Bayswater council confirmed it was still on – the page had just been taken down once all the free slots had been booked out, which was rarely the case before the recent wave of complaints.

by DAVID BELL