Perth Voice Interactive

WITH their experiences often misrepresented or told by non-Aboriginal people, four First Nations photographers will share their stories firsthand in an exhibition of recent works at the Perth Centre of Photography.

The “Exposure: New Voices in Australian Photography” project was started by PCP board member Glenn Iseger Pilkington, intending to make sure First Nations voices were heard first hand and correctly represented.

Kimberley artists Mary-Lou Oriyarli Divili, Maria Fredericks, Nuriah Jadai and Maria Maraltadj were mentored and given resources and professional opportunities through Kimberley charity Camera Story to develop a body of work for the exhibition.

“This exhibition is the culmination of years of work for both PCP and the artists and will provide Boorloo audiences with a unique glimpse into the lives and imaginations of artists and storytellers living and working across this state,” Iseger Pilkinton says.

Jadai, a Marty and Mangala woman, sought to use photography to show how country and people are one. 

“This Exposure program respected our time and space to make art,” she said.

“Making art on my own country, is a feeling that I cannot describe. It’s where I’m from, where I belong. It belongs to me. I could tell my story and be connected with country.”

The exhibition runs March 11 to May 13 at PCP’s King Street Art Centre, 357 Murray Street Perth, opening times at pcp.org.au

A 40KMH trial on local roads across southern Vincent only led to a one kilometre-per-hour drop in average speeds.

Despite the modest impact, the council still wants to roll out 40kmh across all its local roads. 

The council started the trial in 2019, and consultation with locals in September 2022 found 57 per cent of respondents supported the change and many said they felt safer walking and riding.

But the stats are pretty modest: The traffic study to council says “mean (average) vehicle speeds have reduced by about 1kmh” after the change from 50kmh to 40kmmh. 

An independent report recommended Vincent go ahead and just change all local roads (the residential streets that aren’t main arteries) to 30kmh, saying that was the safest option to reduce serious crashes and get more people walking and riding.

But councillors were reluctant to go that far and instead voted for 40kmh, and the city will now need to petition Main Roads to make the change official. 

Mayor Emma Cole acknowledged 30kmh is “probably the gold standard, but we are needing to be pragmatic,” and Main Roads weren’t likely to lower the limit that far until actual physical traffic-slowing measures were in place and average speeds had slowed more.

“I think community appetite sits at 40 for now… we’re looking at this being incremental, and that’s the way, I think, to achieve the support of Main Roads as well.”

Former councillor Dudley Maier attended the meeting and told the council the trial showed that 40kmh wasn’t enough and they ought go with the expert recommendation of 30.

“If the intention of the trial was to produce a noticeable reduction in traffic speed, it’s been an abject failure… speeds dropped by about one kilometre. It’s not very much.

Mr Maier said “overseas experience has shown that the trend is towards 30kmh on local roads. Joondalup implemented a trial to 30kmh and it showed that it had a minimal impact on journey times but offered significant improvements in road safety and pedestrian amenity, so why can’t we?”

For now the more modest reduction to 40kmh is planned to go Vincent-wide in 2023 or 2024, if Main Roads gives approval. 

by DAVID BELL

BASKETBALL would be impossible to play at nearly all outdoor courts if draft state noise guidelines were applied, Stirling mayor Mark Irwin warns.

The WA Department of Water and Environmental Regulation has drafted guidelines on “minimising noise impact from outdoor community basketball facilities”. 

The guidelines come after a series of suburban courts being shut down in recent years due to complaints under existing state noise laws, in Victoria Park, Capel, Joondalup, and one in Stirling.

The current draft doesn’t propose a retroactive ban on existing courts, but recommends small courts are a minimum of 60m from any residence, and full courts should be 100-150m away from residences. 

While they’re billed as “guidelines” rather than laws, Mr Irwin still warns their presence could loom over councils and “inevitably” influence decision-making, possibly leading to costly modifications or more court closures.

“If we simply applied the proposed regulations to our existing outdoor courts, 25 out of the City’s 29 outdoor facilities, or over 86 per cent, would be non-compliant,” Mr Irwin said in a media statement. 

“While the City of Stirling is seeking to increase accessibility to outdoor courts to meet this demand, including through shared-use arrangements with local schools, these draft Guidelines appear to be doing the opposite.”

DWER is currently taking feedback from councils about the draft until March 3. 

Earlier this week sport and recreation minister David Templeman watered down fears of a halfcourt fatwa, saying it was “common sense” that young people needed places to throw a hoop, and that residents living near parks needed to be understanding.

The draft guidelines also earned the ire of Basketball WA; Stirling’s community development director Michael Quirk was appointed to its board last year.

by DAVID BELL

WOMEN living homeless on Perth’s streets fear they’ll have no place to go if funding is cut off for the Safe Night Space in East Perth.

Perth council is mulling over whether to stretch the budget to keep Safe Night Space going another 6-12 months.

“We’d be lost without this place,” one woman sleeping in the East Perth SNS said. “They’re going to see more ladies being assaulted and raped” if they’re returned to the streets.

She said other services were either full or required too many hoops to jump through to be admitted, and many women needing a place to stay urgently would struggle with navigating paperwork or interviews.

The City opened the SNS for women in the Rod Evans Centre on Hay Street in 2021, contracting homelessness services provider Ruah to run the place. 

It was originally a stop-gap measure until more state government homeless facilities were opened up, like the Murray Hotel planned to open with 30 beds this year, and the Ruah Centre for Women and Children that’s proposed to open with 14 beds in Northbridge by 2024, but has found an easy-entry niche. 

Funding ends in May, and the city has to weigh up rising costs if it continues funding. It costs $1.08 million a year to run, but Ruah has been shouldering extra costs from bringing in specialist staff for clients’ complex needs.

Another year’s funding would cost the council $1.45m (and still leave Ruah, a not-for-profit, to cover $258,000 in additional costs). 

Ruah’s housing GM Elsie Blay spoke to councillors at a briefing this week, urging them to continue the service.

“The impact of Safe Nights closing without any similar service will have a profound impact on this growing issue in the city. In January this year we’ve had 112 women who have newly needed our service,” Ms Blay said.

“Ruah and the City [of Perth] have worked together to support hundreds of women who were rough sleeping and came to Safe Nights, and who are now in permanent housing.

“There is no alternative to Safe Nights. It’s the only service of its kind… it’s had a significant impact in giving practical solutions for women to turn their lives around, like the woman who’s recently started TAFE and now has a job in hospitality, the woman who’s back with her kids and staying away from drug use, the woman in stable housing now working in a café.”

A staff report said there’s been an average of two calls to police a week in relation to the trouble at and around the centre, but still recommended a six-month funding extension. 

The centre runs 7pm to 7am, and a few women stay outside or in the nearby park during the day. A neighbouring playground is now less popular, with parents wary of rough sleepers.

Lord mayor Basil Zempilas noted there had been some extra beds made available by the state government since the SNS opened, but was frustrated its 112-unit ‘Common Ground’ facility in East Perth had been delayed again.

by DAVID BELL

MANY ventures have come and gone on Oxford Street over the years, and this week historians from the Vincent Local History Centre archives delve into the many lives of the iconic 123 Oxford Street: from rowdy whippet club, upmarket makeover, to the colourful Greens & Co and beyond

OXFORD STREET in Leederville has seen many businesses come and go over the years. 

From grocers to fishmongers, hardware stores and hairdressers, the street has been home to a vast range of shops and services since it was developed as a commercial hub in the late 19th century. 

Recently, 123 Oxford Street has featured in local news as the proposed site for a new Indian gastropub. 

Vincent Council approved a new tavern use for the site this month, paving the way for Jagga Daku to open around mid-year as a tavern and Indian cuisine eatery by night and a cafe and brunch space during the day.

The site was most recently occupied by Greens & Co cafe, which closed its doors in 2021.  

Long before it was a cafe, the building was home to Leederville’s first Woolworths variety store which opened in 1958.  

Woolworths was founded in New 

South Wales in the 1920s by door-to-door haberdashery salesman Percy Christmas. 

It began as a variety store modelled on the American FW Woolworth’s ‘five and dime’ shops. The name was not trademarked in Australia and so the Woolworths name was adopted, despite it having no formal affiliation with the American company. 

Perth’s first Woolworths store opened at 707 Hay Street in 1928. 

The store eventually branched out into suburbs, including Leederville in the late 1950s.  

It was not until decades later that the company expanded into a supermarket chain.

Woolworths was originally a variety store that sold homewares, toys, toiletries, haberdashery and clothing.

Photos from the Leederville store opening in 1958 showed shoppers clamouring to buy opening day specials such as nylon stockings and sheets. 

Before it was a Woolworths, 123 Oxford Street was the site of the Metropolitan Whippet Club.  

Whippet racing began in Leederville in October 1931 and reached peak popularity in the 1930s when up to 100 dogs competed weekly to large crowds.  

Whippets, known colloquially as the 

‘poor man’s greyhound’ or ‘poor man’s racehorse’, were introduced for racing in Western Australia’s goldfields in the early 1900s.  

Poor man’s greyhound

During the Depression and war, whippet racing was a popular form of entertainment in many Western Australian towns, including Leederville.  

In modern times, concerns for animal welfare have shifted attitudes against forms of animal racing.  

However, in the 1930s, whippet racing attracted controversy not for its potential impact on animals, but because it was seen to attract unsavoury human behaviour such as betting and swearing on the streets of Leederville.  

“Who was responsible for the establishment of a whippet course at the junction of Newcastle and Oxford Street?” asked a passer-by in The West Australian in January 1932.

“Women hardly dare wait for a tram on this corner lest their ears be assailed by the curses and vulgarities of men who have backed the wrong dog… betting inside the course is forbidden, so it is obviously carried on outside.”  

Defending the Leederville races, Bob Shilling and Two Bob argued: “These dogs are well fed and cared for… the dogs are the property of working men who do not keep hangers-on. It is a hobby; why should any exception be taken to them enjoying their sport?” (The West Australian, January 1932).  

The whippet races took place at one of Leederville’s current carparks.

If anyone has any photos of the races, or of any other events which took place on the site, contact the City of Vincent Local History Centre at local.history@vincent.wa.gov.au