Perth Voice Interactive

WA’S only arts precinct has called for greater protection as developers eye off the prime land in the West Perth wedge south of Newcastle Street.

The area’s been redubbed “the Pickle District” in recent years as arts and cultural uses have reinhabited the old warehouses and dormant factories. 

But its rejuvenation has started attracting developers, prompting fears it’ll undergo the same gentrification as other arts precincts around the world: Once creatives have made a dusty old district trendy, it becomes a prime target for developers and anyone creative gets priced out. 

Vincent council is currently working on a new framework that’ll set the long-term vision for the area and drive policies and rules intended to keep the district’s identity. Aims include:

• Preserving art and cultural uses;

• Keeping the industrial character and encouraging buildings to be re-used if possible;

• Encouraging the night-time economy with lighting and safety improvements; and,

• Giving developers incentives to include space for the creative sector in any new buildings, such as requiring a percentage of affordable housing, or mandating they offer a five-year peppercorn lease to a creative use if they want extra height bonuses.

Many people who responded to community consultation said they don’t want “franchises or major corporations” coming to Pickle.

But the draft framework’s too late for one large franchise, with a state authority last year approving a Bunnings that’ll be built on a huge conglomerated multi-block site (“Pickle approval ‘guts’ arts precinct,” Voice, November 19, 2022).

Framework

Pickle District Town Team chair Jon Denaro attended Vincent council’s March 9 briefing, urging them to strengthen the framework to better protect the Pickle District.

His arts hub Voxlab is one of several creative businesses that’ll be displaced by the Bunnings. He told councillors more developers would soon be wanting to build in the district, with imminent plans afoot for the large caryard site.

“Next week we go into negotiations with the next development to come along. You know how the Bunnings development went for all of us – we’re kicked out. So we’re trying to keep this thing alive… and we don’t have much to stand on here.” 

Not having a framework in place already meant they couldn’t broker a deal for Bunnings to provide the kind of community art space the locals had hoped for.

“We’re hoping that this document can provide us with that sort of clout,” Mr Denaro said, adding that existing users would be fine with development as long as there’s a fair amount of space preserved for the arts “in perpetuity”.

He reminded councillors this was “the only arts precinct in Western Australia”.

Councillors vote on the framework at their May 16 meeting, and mayor Emma Cole asked staff to look into whether they could require developers to offer creative spaces in perpetuity.

“I’d definitely be interested if that’s possible,” Ms Cole said. 

The Pickle District just held its third After Dark event on May 6 with a roaming art crawl packing the venues and alleys with art lovers. The PD Town Team is optimistic the district will endure the onslaught of developers and are already planning a fourth.

by DAVID BELL

A YOUNG brother and sister business duo have found a way to turn hard-to-recycle bottle lids into a sustainable craft business.

Morley kids Toby, 11, and Maddie, 9, have spent months crafting more than a hundred artistic pots for small succulent plants and have now started selling them.

“We got the idea from our nannie,” Maddie says, referring to their environmentally-minded grandmother who taught them the technique.

“We’re doing it to save the environment,” Maddie explains.

Both have inherited a love for the environment in general, and have their favourite animals they want to protect. 

“Turtles,” Maddie says.

“Dugongs!” for Toby, a recent favourite that he hopes to see in person on an upcoming family trip to Shark Bay.

Bottle caps are particularly tricky to recycle, and they’re one of the most common plastic items to end up in rivers, oceans, and on beaches. 

Toby explains to us that tiny bits of plastic like bottle caps can’t go in your normal recycling bin because the sorting machines can’t handle them: “Anything smaller than your elbow falls through the teeth of the gears.”

So Toby and Maddie have been asking friends and family for their plastic lids: “Thousands” of them so far, mum Chelsea Shaw says. 

The first step is giving them a thorough wash until they’re “cleaner than clean” according to nannie’s instructions.

Then they take them to sustainability charity REmida where a specialised bit of machinery grinds them up into tiny flakes.

“Then we get the sandwich press,” Toby says, and layer the flakes in. They colour coordinate, mixing in blue milk lids, green hilo lids, and a scattering of red coke lids for artistic effect. 

Warmed

Then with a cup as a mould the flakes are warmed up until they meld together. For each pot “it’s probably a 13-minute round process,” Toby says. “I timed it once.” 

While the collecting, processing, and crafting process has been going on, Toby and Maddie have also been growing succulents to transplant into the finished creations. 

Recently they contacted Bayswater Twilight Markets to see if they might be able to get a stall there, and the organisers sponsored them to set up a spot this week.

They’ve branded their project “Sustainable Succulent Creations” and are selling their pots for $6 each or two for $10 – and splitting the proceeds with Bayswater’s Enviro House. 

They’ll be at the markets at Bert Wright Park this Friday May 12 from 5pm to 8.30pm.

by DAVID BELL

BEATTY Park Swim School has been nationally recognised with team leader Rebecca Ross taking home the top award for emerging talent. 

Ms Ross started as a swim teacher there in 2010 and is now a team leader. She won the award at the Australian Swim Schools Association excellence awards in Adelaide, and the Beatty Park Swim School itself got a “highly commended” mark in the Safer Swimming category

Ms Ross was recognised for building a strong and happy culture there, and driving a record number of enrolments at the swim school – with 2800 students this year.

Vincent mayor Emma Cole said in a press release: “I would like to congratulate Rebecca and the swim school on this amazing achievement. From its Angelfish program for students with a disability to block lessons for fly-in, fly-out workers and tailored lessons for Ukrainian refugees, our swim school has taught people from all ages and walks of life how to swim and be safe in the water.”

Beatty Park Leisure Centre last week recorded 1 million visits this financial year, the first time they’ve ever hit the milestone in the centre’s 61-year history.

THE Leederville town centre is set to have a new biggest building with the approval of 12-storey apartments on Leederville that are double the height of any existing builds. 

The block at 200 Carr Place was originally going to host the triple-building, eight-storey, 52-unit “Locale” project by owner Hanrise (“Locale on the up,” Voice, February 18, 2023).

That version won approval in 2020 and the estimated cost at the time was $17 million. 

About half the apartments sold on pre-sale, but the project never got started.

“Unfortunately, the project was unable to proceed due to high construction costs,” according to the owner’s hired planner, Trent Will from Taylor Burrell Barnett, in a missive sent to the Development Assessment Panel.

The re-design’s sought to get more yield out of the site with an eye to Vincent council’s long-term draft plans to let more height into Leederville.

Currently the height limit in Leederville is four storeys, but in September 2021 Vincent councillors gave a preliminary thumbs-up to a draft Leederville Precinct Structure Plan which would allow 10 storeys, or 14 if the building offers some extra benefits like energy efficiency, extra greenery, public areas or infrastructure improvement.

In this case Hanrise is hoping for 12 storeys on the back of energy efficiency, extra trees and landscaping, and a community space with a pocket park to one side and a community garden out front. 

The re-design fits in 76 units and is estimated to cost $35m. 

Some locals are unhappy with the project and want to stick to the current limits for Leederville. Of 20 submissions from people living within 200 metres, more than half objected, a couple supported, and a couple had “concerns”.

Resident Jelena May told the May 8 meeting the project would overshadow neighbours and with its extra traffic the triple towers were a bad fit for Carr Place: she said it’s a small dead-end street with only one messy exit that’s already tricky for pedestrians and cyclists, and it’d struggle with the extra traffic. But Vincent planning staff recommended approval based on the council’s future vision for the area, and the DAP members unanimously voted for approval.

The biggest existing nearby building is six storeys. Further out on the edges of Leederville, plans have been approved for an upcoming 25 storey building on the old Watercorp site.

THE councillor who drove Vincent’s crackdown on smoke and vape shops has welcomed the federal government’s plan to stamp out vaping.

Federal health minister Mark Butler announced a week ago increased efforts to stop illegal importation of non-prescription vapes, restrictions on flavours, colouring and fancy packaging, and a ban on disposable vapes.  

Councillor Jonathan Hallett, also a public health researcher at Curtin uni, was behind the local policy that targeted premises offering smoking, vaping, or shisha products or services. 

The new rule, given final approval by councillors in December 2022, restricts premises from opening up near a wide range of other land uses, including residences, businesses, child cares, schools, or parks. 

The policy also prevents smoking-related products from being directly displayed or visible from the street.

Cr Hallett’s policy was based on research showing that smoking rates increased in tandem with the density of smoke shops, and underage smoking rates also increased when premises were allowed near schools. 

“I think the federal health minister has carefully listened to the medical and scientific evidence to reduce not only vaping but also smoking, contributing significant funds to evidence-based education campaigns to discourage smoking and vaping and support for smoking cessation,” Cr Hallett said.

“We know from recently published evidence that 14 per cent of young Australians currently use e-cigarettes. We also know that people who don’t smoke but use e-cigarettes are around three times as likely to take up smoking as those who don’t use e-cigarettes.

“This insidious industry is profiting from addicting a new generation of young people to nicotine and this re-establishes Australia as a world leader in tobacco control.

“For those who are using e-cigarettes to quit smoking they will still be available through prescription and support is available for those vaping to manage nicotine withdrawal signs if they want it.”

Vaping advocates, including some who’ve written in to the Voice like Colin Mendelsohn, have often said “research shows [vaping] is around 95 per cent safer than smoking”.

Cr Hallett points to a recent 

article by his public health researcher colleague Jonine Jancey pointing out “this statement stems from a study criticised for its lack of hard evidence”. 

Vincent council has also established smoke-free town centres, including vapes. 

It’s been running for six months so far, and they’re currently inviting feedback on how it’s been working out so far via imagine. vincent.wa.gov.au until June 30.

by DAVID BELL

AFTER seven years in storage a Northbridge memorial has been restored and re-dedicated to people who spent their childhoods in institutional care.

Unfolding Lives by Judith Forrest featured text by poet Terri-ann White reflecting experiences of care leavers: former child migrants, foster children, stolen generation members, and those who grew up in residential camps. 

It was unveiled in the Northbridge Cultural Centre in 2010, the year after a national apology to the children who’d grown up in institutions, but was removed and put in storage in 2016 when the neighbouring WA Museum was redeveloped. 

The museum reopened in 2020 but the sculpture remained in storage and was deteriorating, prompting a campaign led by care leaver Mark Farmer to have it reinstated.

On Monday May 8 care leavers walked through an honour guard to unveil the restored monument, about 50 metres from its previous location.

Victims of crime commissioner Kati Kraszlan officiated the event, and said: “Care leavers have shown great understanding and patience during the redevelopment of the museum and restoration of the sculpture.

“They played a prominent role in the process to choose the site of the memorial’s permanent home and it’s fitting that they unveiled it today.”