Perth Voice Interactive

AN interactive light and sound installation hits Cathedral Square this week with a vast network of glowing spheres looking for a human connection.

The artwork Affinity by Sydney-based artist studio Amigo & Amigo was first seen at Sydney’s Vivid festival and it’s been brought west with funding from the WA government Covid-recovery chest to get people back into the city.

Affinity features a network of orbs with 62 different colour combinations linked up to represent neurons in the brain. They change colour at a touch and the more people that interact with a globe the further their colour travels through the network.

It runs daily 6pm to 9pm from May 1 to May 28 at the corner of Cathedral Avenue and St Georges Terrace.

VINCENT council’s planning experts have sided with locals concerned about a proposed Angove Street petrol station, recommending the state’s Development Assessment Panel reject the proposal.

Petrol station franchise On the Run wants to build a 24-hour station at the site of the old mechanic’s shop at the corner of Angove and Woodville Streets, with the application saying it’ll be an “attractive, high quality built form which enhances the appearance of the subject site” and adds amenity and services to the neighbourhood.

But local opposition has been near-unanimous.

They’re chiefly concerned about the possible health risks from petrol fumes along with the cafe strip’s ambiance being wrecked by cars lining up for 24-7 fuel (Voice, November 19, 2022). 

The mechanic did have petrol bowsers on site, but they were rarely used. The new station would have eight pumps, which the planning report estimates will serve 68 cars per hour at peak times. 

When the plan was first advertised last year 485 letters were mailed out within a 200 metre radius of the site.

A mammoth 235 submissions were received, far higher than the usual 5 per cent response rate, and only seven were in support of the station. Along with the opposing letters there was a 326-signature petition organised by the “Stop the Station” North Perth group.

On the Run’s offer to move the station a metre further away from nearby homes didn’t mollify anyone and a second round of advertising saw another 245 submissions lodged against the plans (and 188 of those were fresh submitters who hadn’t spoken up last time around). Only one person supported the station in the second round, saying it’d be convenient to be able to fill up locally.

“The major issues haven’t been addressed,” Stop the Station convener Don Barba said of the revised plans that were re-advertised in March (Voice, March 25, 2023).

“There’s still going to be an effect on the locals‚Ķ the businesses, the houses there,” plus the school that’s about 20 metres away from the laneway access to the station.

Vincent’s planners are recommending the DAP refuse the station due to the “adverse impact” on local amenity, especially given it adjoins residences to the south.

On the Run’s hired experts reckon the fumes can be adequately contained, but the council planners aren’t convinced. Their report says “it has not been demonstrated the proposal would not have an adverse risk to human health or impact on the community. 

“The Environmental Impact Assessment has not demonstrated the health implications of exposure to emissions including benzene at sensitive receivers which include the adjoining residents, children at the North Perth Primary School, or the elderly at Casson House.”

It’d also present a “predominantly blank facade” that wouldn’t do anything to keep Angove Street lively, and the report also raises traffic concerns and a grab-bag of other problems.

The DAP is due to vote on the proposal at its May 3 meeting.

That’s just two weeks before Vincent council’s May meeting where councillors are expected to approve a hastily-drafted policy that’d ban petrol stations next to homes.

Even though that rule hasn’t been finalised and would still need state government approval before being set in stone, the DAP is supposed to consider the policy’s intent when they’re voting.

WAAPA music students are getting a chance to jam with Los Angeles guitar guru Frank Gambale for a two-night performance.

Gamble was Australian-born but moved to LA and graduated from the Guitar Institute of Technology in Hollywood, and made it big in the world of jazz fusion guitar in the 1980s as part of the Chick Corea Elektric Band. 

As a music educator he pioneered the “Gambale Sweep Picking Technique” and he’s in town to share his expertise with WAAPA musos at a week of workshops and masterclasses ahead of the performances alongside students on May 5 and 6.

They’re at Geoff Gibbs Theatre at WAAPA’s Mount Lawley campus, tickets $40/$35 via waapa.ecu.edu.au

MOBILE reception is so bad around Crimea Reserve that one resident’s been told to get a satellite phone, while others are begging for a telecommunications tower.

It’s rare for residents to campaign in favour of a new phone tower going up at a public park; it’s usually an issue that unites them in opposition.

But the mood in Morley’s split on the 30.8m tower that comms company Amplitel says will fix a Telstra coverage gap. 

Forty four submissions have been lodged against it, and 13 people have asked Bayswater council to approve the proposal, plus another 68 signatures in favour in an online petition. 

Those opposed say the tower should be in an industrial area away from parks and homes.

“It is not a suitable location for a mobile phone base station which will ruin a community hub,” one submission said.

Morley resident Leon McGrath is urging the council to approve the tower to fix his phone troubles.

In a deputation to the April meeting he wrote that at his McArthur Street home 600m away: “The mobile coverage available from all mobile network service providers is extremely poor.”

He has almost no mobile signal either inside or outside his house, and calls either don’t get through or they drop out. Texts are delayed until they can randomly eke through on a whiff of signal. 

He recently lodged a complaint with Telstra about the mobile coverage, and said: “In response, Telstra’s proposed solution was that I obtain a satellite telephone service, despite being less than 10km from the Perth CBD”. 

Telstra’s official coverage map claims to deliver blanket coverage to the city, with reception not supposed to drop out until you hit Jarrahdale state forest.

Another resident who signed the petition said: “There is literally no reception on the streets surrounding the park. 

I worry for the residents in an emergency situation as calls in/out drop out mid-call constantly.”

Another petitioner wrote: “My house has many black spots. Either the phone doesn’t ring, or I have to move from room to room to find where I can converse.” 

One signatory struggled to work from home due to the lack of a phone signal.

Council staff recommended councillors reject the tower at the April 26 meeting, saying it’s not in line with the City’s phone tower policy because it’ll be “located where it will be prominently visible from the Crimea Reserve recreation site” and would be undermine the “recreational value and function of the reserve”.

The staff report says the City is “acutely aware” of the poor coverage in parts of Morley, and they’re prepared to consider an application for a tower at an alternative site where it can be co-located with existing phone towers. 

Amplitel has stated that won’t work: “There are no other co-location solutions in the area that can achieve Telstra’s coverage area target”.

Council was due to vote just after the Voice went to print.

Previously the council tried to reject a phone tower at Crimea Reserve in 2016, but the decision was overturned by the State Administrative Tribunal. 

by DAVID BELL

SKATEBOARDERS, cyclists, BMXers, bike-poloists and rollerbladers are being called on to have their say about what they need in Bayswater.

Having now opened its flagship Bayswater Skate Park at Wotton Reserve, Bayswater council’s working on a $50,000 skate and BMX strategy to serve wheelie sports across the rest of the city for the next decade. 

Bayswater mayor Filomena Piffaretti said: “We know skateboarding, scooting and BMX riding are becoming increasingly popular and we’re keen for our community to share their experiences so we can better understand their needs and preferences. 

“Whether you’re keen to build your little one’s confidence through smaller skate elements added to a path at your local park or are a fan of purpose-built facilities like the one at Crimea Reserve in Morley, we want to hear from you.”

The council already has a couple more wheelie projects in the half-pipeline, with a mountain bike skills zone and pump track soon to be built under the Redcliffe Bridge, and a pocket park on the way for Coode Street Reserve which will have some low-key skate and parkour elements. 

Comments are sought via https://engage.bayswater. wa.gov.au/skate-and-bmx-strategy until May 14. 

A SOUTH AFRICAN Cape  Chestnut tree was used by the supporters of the East Perth Football Club as a vantage point at football games at Perth Oval.

The tree became a barometer in accurately predicting Grand Final wins for the club. 

Charlie’s Tree was named after CJ (Charlie) Chandler, a legendary supporter of the Royals in the post-war years. 

Mr Chandler was a member of the 2/16th Battalion in World War II.

Everyone would know he’d arrived at the game when they heard his loud war cry, “Fight on East Perth – Fight on Digger”. 

It was Mr Chandler who noted that the Cape Chestnut burst into blossom every time East Perth won one of its three grand finals in the 1950s. 

He claimed: “If it didn’t flower, the Royals would not win”.

In 1961, the Royals were red hot favourites to win the flag.  

The following verse appeared in the program for their annual ball: 

About Bloomin’ Time
‘Neath the spreading Premiers tree Charlie Chandler stands,
Plucking strange exotic blooms with strong and sinewy hands,
“Bloom on, digger, bloom again”, Charlie Chandler pleads,
And the faithful tree to such
earnest plea graciously concedes,
For Charlie’s tree is our tree too, it’s bloomed whene’er we’ve won,
In ‘56 and twice more since and now in ‘61.

Unfortunately, the flowery prose proved to be wishful thinking. The tree did not bloom and the Royals lost to Swan Districts. 

From the 1960s onwards, Charlie’s Tree faltered in its predictions.  

In 1996, the tree burst into magnificent bloom in October as the Royals had lost the Grand Final to Claremont three weeks earlier.

However, in 2000 when the Royals won their first premiership in 20 years, the tree failed to bloom. 

It also failed to blossom in 2001 and 2002 when the Royals clinched two more premierships.

In the early 2000s, Perth Oval was redeveloped as a rectangular ground for rugby and soccer.  

The Royals relocated to Leederville Oval in 2003, the former home of their traditional rivals the West Perth Cardinals who moved to Joondalup.  

Charlie’s Tree was lost in the redevelopment at Perth Oval, but the club planted a new tree at Leederville oval in 2005 as a symbolic replacement.  

Unfortunately, the Royals have not won a WAFL premiership since 2002. 

The Royals will be hoping the new tree will be in full bloom this year as they search for their 18th premiership.

HUNDREDS of postal votes turned up too late to be counted at Bayswater’s last election, prompting a call for the council to shell out an extra $10,575 to pay for priority post to send out ballots. 

At the 2021 election about 48,148 ballot packages were sent out to Bayswater voters via Australia Post, and about a third of ballots were filled in and returned.

But 466 votes turned up after the October 16 deadline, due to either being “posted too late or delayed in the mail” according to a council report. That’s about 1 per cent of the total vote. 

Concerns about late ballots have popped up at a few elections in recent years, with Australia Post’s delivery slowing down as letter-sending rates drop in the internet era and that side of its business becomes less profitable. 

Bayswater deputy mayor Catherine Ehrhardt put up a motion for the April 26 meeting calling for the council to spend the extra to get ballots out quicker.

That’s on top of the $252,000 they council is already paying the WA Electoral Commission to run the postal election. 

Reply-paid ballots are already sent priority mail. Switching the outgoing mail to priority should get ballots to voters by the next business day, instead of the random three-to-seven days it currently takes. 

Cr Ehrhardt said the change would also give more time for people to get a replacement ballot if their first one doesn’t show up. Just over 90 replacements were issued at the last election. 

Cr Ehrhardt said there were enough votes late that it could impact the outcome in a close-run race.

“It could have in previous elections,” Cr Ehrhardt told the Voice. “If you look at the 2017 election, in west ward there was a disparity of 21 votes between someone who got elected and someone who didn’t.”

She acknowledged some might not like spending the extra $10,575, but “democracy isn’t cheap”.

This election will also be more complex with the likely introduction of preferential voting. It’ll also be the first time Bayswater residents have directly voted for a mayor, instead of the usual system where councillors appoint a mayor from among themselves after the election.

Across the state an average of 0.86 per cent of votes showed up too late to count in 2021.

Currently the voting packages can’t be sent out any earlier due to a fixed timeframe set out in state legislation, which sets the close of nominations at 37 days before the election. Ballots then have to be laid out, printed and posted, leaving voters with anywhere from two and a half weeks to just five business days to vote.

“I’m concerned that at the last election there was a disparity of four to five business days within the City of Basywater,” Cr Ehrhardt said.

In its report on the 2021 elections the WAEC said: “The Commission has previously raised these concerns” with the local government department, “and it is understood that the government intends to examine this issue in future legislative amendments”.

Letter delivery times may also drop further under an impending federal government review: 

In February Australia Post announced the letters side of its business lost nearly $200 million across six months. 

Australia Post chief executive Paul Graham told a senate estimates hearing that the organisation’s obligation to deliver letters five days a week was too expensive given the small number being sent.

The federal government is considering an overhaul and the five-day-a-week delivery requirement may be dropped as part of the changes. The requirement was temporarily dropped in 2020 and 2021 amid pandemic conditions.