Perth Voice Interactive

ANA is a lively and positive 90-year-old living with her artist daughter Andriana. 

They were born in Macedonia and had their home in the city of Skopje in the north of Macedonia.  

Ana and her husband Kira loved their work together as doctors in paediatric medicine in Macedonia.  

Andriana studied economics and graduated with honours, while her younger brother, Theo, was a talented musician and poet.

Soviet Union

During the early 1990s as the Soviet Union broke up, there was enormous political and economic instability in the region of (now) North Macedonia and significant inter-ethnic tensions occurred in the countries of Eastern Europe, including those that shared a border with (now) North Macedonia. 

Ana and her family lived in fear of the violence erupting in her region. 

As a family of intellectuals during the Soviet era, they had also lived in fear of being targeted in the growing violence and disappearances of people who did not agree with their government.

Their fears were heightened when a doctor friend and his daughter were brutally murdered.

As the situation in their country deteriorated, Ana, Kira and Theo made the difficult decision to leave their homeland and follow Andriana to Australia (Andriana  had arrived in Australia in 1983 as a young economics graduate on a tourist visa, but soon fell in love with the country and with an Australian man; they married and had two wonderful children).  

Ana, Kira and Theo arrived in Sydney in 1991.  

Although the family had been relatively well-to-do in Macedonia, they were forced to leave their wealth behind.

Their first home in Australia was a small flat in the outer suburbs of Sydney where Ana and Kiri worked hard to adapt, learn English and connect to a new community.  

Theo suffered from a chronic illness, so Ana divided her time between caring for her son and helping others.  

She became the adopted grandmother to a family of Australian children and helped families with children with disability. 

Although officially retired from her work as a paediatrician, Ana still had much to share, and she used her skills and empathy to support a number of local families. 

In 1988 Andriana and her young family moved to Western Australia and bought their beautiful old home in Fremantle.  

Ana remained in Sydney caring for her husband and son until she was 82 years old. Kira had passed away in 1997 and sadly Theo also died in 2015.  

Ana moved to start a new life with Andriana in Fremantle.  

She fully embraced life in our port city; making many new friends, enjoying Zumba, continuing English classes and attending the Villa Dalmatia Senior’s Centre one day per week. 

Gallery

Andriana runs an amazing and uniquely beautiful gallery of her artworks in their home.  

Ana helps by preparing traditional Macedonian foods for exhibitions and gallery openings. 

Andriana’s paintings reflect both the beauty of their lives in Australia and the tragedy that many refugees have lived through. 

Although Ana broke her hip in 2021, her spirit of survival has shone through and after many difficult months she is walking again and still enjoys receiving friends for tea in their beautiful home. 

One of her greatest joys now is to spend time with her two-year-old grandson. 

Ana is a person of great intelligence and compassion. 

She came to Fremantle very late in life and yet continues to shine and be a valued senior in the Fremantle community. 

by PAULINE PANNELL

THE United Nations Association of Australia WA is marking Refugee Week with Assadullah Khurrami, a former asylum seeker who overcame extraordinary challenges to forge a new life in Perth.

Mr Khurrami’s talk will explore the resilience and courage of refugees and gain insights into the hurdles they face on their quest for freedom.

Mr Khurrami’s journey began in war-torn Kabul, Afghanistan. Forced to flee due to civil war, he faced displacement, regional turmoil, and the ever-present threat of the Taliban. 

After enduring targeted attacks and seeking refuge in Indonesia, Mr Khurrami embarked on a treacherous sea voyage to Australia, where he encountered the harsh realities of detention and settlement.

Since his arrival, Mr Khurrami attained a postgraduate qualification and gained extensive experience working in humanitarian settlement and the refugee community at state and national levels.

The event, supported by the Refugee Council of Australia and the Equal Opportunity Commission, is being held from 5.30 – 7pm at on Thursday June 22 at the State Library Of WA. It’s free, but book a ticket at: eventbrite.com. au/e/refugee-week-2023-tickets-636308936157

TOO many Bayswater streets are named after ‘white European males’ according to some locals who’d like to see female and Indigenous names get a look-in.

Bayswater council has a pre-approved list of names it doles out whenever a new street or laneway needs a new name, and there are zero Aboriginal names on the list. 

An unlabelled laneway off Crawford Maylands is now in urgent need of naming because ambulances can’t find it.

Resident Peta Illich recently wrote to council saying: “I have had to call an ambulance on several occasions; issues have arisen when our right-of-way was difficult to find and resulted in me having to wait at the entrance on York Street and direct them up the hill to the house, or at night I have to flash a torch down the laneway to attract attention. 

“My son is unwell and I am a pensioner and at times our home needs to be found.”

The council consulted the public on two possible names, Ginger Lane or Kuser Lane, the last two unused names on the pre-approved list. Herbert George Reginald Ginger and William Frederick Kuser were both WWI veterans.

Out of 33 public submissions, 11 supported Ginger, two liked Kuser, and 18 people objected to both names.

One objector said the options were “ridiculous” and said there should be options for Aboriginal names as an opportunity for reconciliation.

Another said “new road/street names should be named after First Nations people or women as there are enough white European male road/street names”.

The call for Aboriginal names was a recurring theme among the objections, but a report by council staff says “the City does not have a list of Aboriginal names that are able to be considered and used for naming”.

To get an Aboriginal name approved requires jumping through an extra hoop by having it align with Landgate’s Aboriginal Naming Guidelines, requiring that it be sourced directly from local traditional owners and be used with their consent.

At the council’s May meeting deputy mayor Catherine Ehrhardt moved that they heed the majority’s wishes and hold off on naming the Maylands laneway until they could invite the public to submit new names, and also get new options to send to Landgate for the list. 

“The two names that were proposed for this particular laneway are the last two names on our list,” Cr Ehrhardt said, adding there were likely lots of other untitled laneways in need of a name in the future.

“I think it’s prudent to not only respond to the community feedback, but to also be proactive with updating that list in general, in consultation with the community.”

All but one councillor, Michelle Sutherland, voted for Cr Ehrhardt’s plan.

“I like the name Ginger Lane, real Australian,” Cr Sutherland said.

“I believe it’s a war veteran’s name. There’s nobody in my mind more deserving than those people.”

Once the public have submitted their name ideas they’ll have to get sent to Landgate for approval, and probably make it back to council for a vote by late 2023. 

by DAVID BELL

DRONES are flying surveillance runs over Kings Park to aid in the fight to save its 100-year old trees in declining health.

About 10 years ago scientists noticed a lot of the century-old native trees at Kings Park were starting to discolour and lose their leaves.

In 2020 when the rainbow bridge to the Perth Children’s Hospital was being built, the 

park authority called in Edith Cowan University geospatial scientists Dave Blake and Eddie van Ettan to monitor the vegetation for any further signs of decline.

“To monitor the declining health of the trees we developed a research project built around unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or drone surveillance,” Dr Blake, from ECU’s Conservation and Biodiversity Research Centre, said in a press release.

“At the time they were concerned that construction activities would impact the native trees in the area which are of high conservation value.”

They discovered the primary cause of the trees’ decline was iron-rich bore water which had been treated with additives in the 1990s.

The park is now experimenting with different irrigation strategies to see how best to nurse the trees back to good health. 

The drones run surveillance flights four to six times a year.

They collect colour, infra-red and thermal imaging to compare the health of trees in trials with a set of control trees.

“The challenge is, how do we monitor vegetation health across the whole of the park that allows us to detect vegetation decline in a timely manner,” Dr Blake said in a release.

“It’s impossible to monitor all the trees across the park using traditional monitoring methods. 

Using UAV technology allows us to survey the whole park in a few hours.”

If their research project is successful in picking which trees are healthy, Drs Blake and van Etten reckon the method could be rolled out for native tree preservation and reforestation projects across Australia.

A CONTENDOR has stepped up for October’s lord mayoral elections, with councillor Sandy Anghie announcing she’ll challenge incumbent Basil Zempilas for the top job.

Cr Anghie, an architect by day, was elected in 2020 with the highest vote of any council candidate in a crowded field of 27 candidates. 

She also made a concurrent tilt for the lord mayoral role that year, but Mr Zempilas dominated that race getting 29.44 per cent in a six-way race, with Cr Anghie getting 9.57 per cent.

We asked Cr Anghie what she would do differently this time round to have a better shot against Mr Zempilas.

“This time I’m starting a lot earlier,” Cr Anghie says. 

“Last time I had just come back from maternity leave, so I think early August I declared. 

“This time I’m declaring earlier, and obviously in the last two and a half years I’ve got to know and build relationships with a lot more people.

“I’ve already started doorknocking yesterday and today along West Perth and I’ll be hitting the other neighbourhoods in the next few days and over the coming weeks and months.”

Cr Anghie has decided not to re-nominate as a councillor this time round, so she’ll be off council if her lord mayoral run isn’t successful. 

As a councillor she’s been prolific in lodging notices of motion – a request for staff to take some strategic direction set by councillors. 

Of her 21 notices of motion, 16 have been successfully endorsed by a majority of councillors, including setting up an LGBTQIA+ advisory group and lighting plans for laneways and landmarks.

Action

But getting action on some of them has been slow, and Cr Anghie feels as lord mayor she’ll be able put more impetus on getting them sorted. 

“There’s a lot on the admin’s plate to action,” Cr Anghie says. 

“Basil’s got different areas of focus than I have, and as lord mayor you’re leading the city, so that’s the key.”

The main selling point for her mayoral campaign is to turn Perth into a 24-hour city year-round, and put more focus on the city’s neighbourhoods, “fostering their unique identities”. 

There are six distinct areas in Perth council’s domain – Central Perth, Claisebrook, Crawley-Nedlands, East Perth, Northbridge, and West Perth – and occasionally residents in the non-CBD areas have said they felt left out by a city-focused council.

Mr Zempilas, who endorsed Cr Anghie’s candidacy in 2020, welcomed her announcement.

He said at the May 30 council meeting: “I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Cr Sandy Angie on her candidacy for lord mayor… as I’ve said many times the spirit of competition is something that we foster and certainly encourage.

“Sandy ran at the last lord mayoral election and I’m delighted to see that she will be stepping forward again.

“I’m a touch sad to see, from what I’ve read, that Cr Angie has indicated running for lord mayor only and not for council. 

“As I’ve said many times Cr Angie has made a fine contribution to our Council and to this chamber and it’s with some regret that if results do not go her way she will not be here beyond October.”

This will be the first council election to use the state government’s new preferential voting system, which would kick in for the lord mayoral race if more than two candidates emerge.

by DAVID BELL

PERTH needs more residents, lord mayor Basil Zempilas says, and he’s hoping newly passed incentives will lure them in with cheaper rates and cut fees for housing developers.

Mr Zempilas raised the idea in July last year and the final suite of incentives was unanimously endorsed by councillors this week.

“[It] has been a stated aim of our City and us as a council to increase our residential population: 55,000 residents in the city by 2036, and 90,000 residents by 2050,” Mr Zempilas said at the May 30 meeting.

He said the measures would “turbo charge the residential population of our city”.

The incentives apply to the central Perth neighbourhood. 

From July 2023 to June 2030, buyers of new properties get 50 per cent reimbursement on rates across three years, estimated to save about $1,000 a year.

Additionally all development application fees are waived for new residential buildings, as are fees for building and occupancy permits. 

A developer building a 30-storey, $30m development would save about $400,000 under this scheme.

They’ll also spend $200,000 on a marketing campaign to show off the virtues of city living.

“Putting thousands of new residents on the doorstep of the city’s central facilities, businesses, and main attractions unlocks a wealth of opportunities,” Mr Zempilas said in a post-meeting press release.

“From the viability and growth of existing and new businesses, to streetscaping, greening and making our city a safer and more enjoyable place to live, work and play, increasing opportunities for city living goes to the heart of community aspirations for a thriving and vibrant capital city.”

The incentives don’t apply to the outer neighbourhoods like the quieter East Perth or West Perth wings for now, as Mr Zempilas said “our Central Perth neighbourhood [is] where we need most of the vibrancy in the short term”.

by DAVID BELL

PARENTS, kids and staff at one of Perth’s most populous schools have welcomed a belated plan to fix pedestrian safety on the surrounding streets.

Maylands Peninsula Primary School principal Paul Andrijich told Bayswater council’s May briefing that road safety had been a common concern from parents across his 11 years at the school. 

The issue’s only getting more pointed as housing infill around Maylands brings in more people and stretches roads and schools to the limit.

A council survey in mid-2022 found fast streets, wide intersections, and broken, narrow, or missing footpaths were common safety issues identified by 281 locals.

Mr Andrijich said the school has 732 students this year and for many of those living in flats along the railway line driving isn’t an option: “So many of our families walk or ride or scoot to school and they traverse long distances to get to and from their homes each day.

“Many of these students are unaccompanied riders or walkers who might not have the required level of road awareness to get them to and from school safely.

“On average I would take a couple of calls each term alerted me to the latest near miss up on Caledonia Avenue or around the school’s immediate jurisdiction,” Mr Andrijich said.

But a council hazard identifying survey from 2022, its “Safe Routes to School” pilot project, initially didn’t contain any action items to bring about concrete changes aside from some tree trimming and routine footpath maintenance. Most items were just aspirationally listed for consideration at an unspecified future date.

Parents organised a petition with 243 signatures calling for the fixes to go ahead instead of sitting on the backburner (“Parents slam report,” Voice, January 21, 2023). 

The councillor who originally pushed for the safety fixes in 2019, Elli Petersen-Pik, requested his council take heed of the petition and put together a solid, budgeted action plan.

Roughly 110 items are now listed for action across the next 10 years. 

High priority items, including the much-requested Guildford Road crossing near Darby Street, are on the priority list for year one. 

Cr Petersen-Pik said at the May council meeting that he realised a comprehensive safe routes plan was needed after the lengthy efforts needed to just get a crossing right outside the school. 

“It took me four years to get the zebra crossing in front of the main entrance to the school and that is not reasonable,” Cr Petersen-Pik said.

He said the increasingly dense urban infill around Maylands made for high numbers of walkers and heavy traffic around the school, so the Safe Routes pilot “was a must, and this will ensure that we are providing the right infrastructure”.

The Safe Routes pilot has been extended to cover Camboon, Embleton and Bayswater primary schools, with the council asking people to identify hazards via engage.bayswater.wa.gov.au until June 19.

by DAVID BELL

A BID to bring in a “night mayor” to drive Perth’s after-hours economy has been shot down by a majority of Perth councillors who reckon a standard mayor can handle the evening activity just fine.

Cr Sandy Anghie put up a notice of motion at the May 30 meeting suggesting the council establish a night-time economic advisory committee headed by a night mayor.

Night mayors typically liaise between venues and residents, run trials to boost night-time visitor numbers, advocate for night transport and more services for night workers, and try to boost night time safety. 

The night mayor and committee work like the council’s other advisory committees which cover areas like design, access and inclusion, LGBTQIA+ and Indigenous perspectives. 

Cr Anghie said 83 cities around the world have a night mayor or “night czar”, including London, Barcelona, New York, Berlin, and Paris. In 2021 Melbourne appointed its first night mayor.

“There’s no need to reinvent the wheel,” Cr Anghie said in her motion. “Let’s follow in the footsteps of Melbourne and other global cities and appoint our own night mayor.”

She said it was great to see the city filled with families at night during special events like the Christmas Lights Trail, and bringing in a night mayor could make those rare evenings more frequent.

Voted down 

Only one other councillor – deputy mayor Liam Gobbert – was willing to investigate the deal. 

All others voted against. 

Cr Rebecca Gordon wasn’t a fan. “In my opinion the city doesn’t need a night mayor. We already have a mayor that works 24-7 around the clock and engaging with stakeholders,” Cr Gordon said.

Lord mayor Basil Zempilas said neither he nor councillors needed a nocturnal counterpart.

“You are the night councillors and I am the night mayor. We don’t need another committee or advisory group,” he said, and recent visitation numbers showed evenings were already pretty healthy and leading the nation in many categories.

“As one 30-year veteran of the industry said to me last week, the night mayor concept is okay, but typically it’s what non-hospitality people think is a good idea for the hospitality sector. 

‘Leave it to us’ were his words.

“Melbourne is Melbourne, a beautiful city, no one has enjoyed it more than me. But I am not so fond of comparisons to Melbourne because as I’ve said, they’re not number one in total visitation at the moment.”

Council staff wrote a report saying the idea was “not supported at this time” because they already had a lot of night-focused initiatives like the Perth Liquor Accord and this could duplicate that work.

by DAVID BELL