Perth Voice Interactive

Reconciliation plan  the ‘most aspirational’

VINCENT council has launched a new reconciliation plan it’s calling its “most aspirational”.

Launched during a workshop celebrating Noongar culture and the six seasons, the three-year plan includes a range of actions to improve employment and procurement opportunities for First Nations people and recognition of their significant sites.

Significantly, it was launched under the canopy of Hyde Park, which is a registered Aboriginal site.

Vincent will now aim to meet a target of 3 per cent Indigenous staff; it has also set a 3 per cent target for procurement from businesses who are majority-owned by Indigenous people.

Other aims of the RAP include:

• Working with partner organisations to tackle homelessness;

• Providing opportunities for elders and First Nations people to participate in truth telling and share their experiences;

• Promote awareness of the Noongar six seasons through events, public signage and information; and,

• Revive traditional names of parks.

A significant Indigenous artwork is also on the cards for a prominent spot in Vincent.

Vincent mayor Emma Cole said the RAP was “particularly powerful and important” because of the elders’ involvement.

“I would like to honour the late Aunty Margaret Culbong, a champion of Aboriginal human rights and community-controlled 

 health services, who taught me some significant history in the short but special time she spent with us at Vincent,” Ms Cole said.

“This included the fact that the City of Vincent was once part of the Perth Prohibited Area, when Noongar people were not permitted to be in our neighbourhoods without a permit, including places of Aboriginal significance.

“Aunty Margaret remembered and experienced this herself. It highlights the vital importance of truth telling and understanding the past to unlock our greatest potential for reconciliation.”

SEVEN out of 10 people would still buy a property if it had trees protected by a register, according to a survey by Stirling council.

The council has moved a step closer to adopting a significant tree register and will send it off to the WA Planning Commission and planning minister Rita Saffioti for their approval. 

A staff report to the council indicated the WAPC was likely to support a scheme amendment to enshrine the register in law.

It also indicated the state’s planning department was considering tree registers from a number of councils and was trying to establish some uniformity; one of its recommendations was to strike the word “protected” from the scheme amendments and use “registered” instead.

It also asked the council to remove a clause from a previous scheme amendment relating to protecting trees on development sites, saying it would be better to have both considered in the current amendment.

An online survey by the council found only 7.9 per cent of respondents opposed a significant tree register.

Just over half supported the register – some with modifications – while another 41.3 per cent simply made suggestions without indicating their preference.

Eighty per cent believed a register would help to increase Stirling’s canopy cover, which has been rapidly diminishing.

The city has worked up a policy to guide operating the register, which include provisions such as notifying any ratepayers whose property is within a tree’s root zone before it can be registered.

The policy will sit on ice until the scheme amendment is signed off.

THIS week’s tale from the Vincent Local History Centre archives takes us back through the history of Smith’s Lake and its many transformations from Noongar wetland to vehicle dumping ground to modern-day suburban oasis.

CHARLES VERYARD RESERVE is located on a former wetland known to the local Noongar people as Danjanberup (or Janjanbering/Danjanbirup).

European colonists named the area Three Island Lake and later Smith’s Lake after local farmer John Smith – a discharged sergeant in the 21st Regiment who was granted land in the area in 1840.

The arrival of convicts from the 1850s provided a source of labour for farms and large-scale public works, including drainage of the wetland areas north of Perth through to Claise Brook.

Gradually the lake area diminished as it was developed for farming and market gardening.

In the early 1900s, land to the south of Smith’s Lake was offered for sale as part of the Lakeside Estate. The area in and around the lake and to the north continued to be used for farming and market gardening with smaller plots often leased by Chinese market gardeners.

Many locals recall the Chinese market gardeners farming in the area until the late 1950s. 

Between the wars, the City of Perth gradually acquired much of the area as recreation reserve, and to extend Bourke Street east to connect Charles and Loftus Streets. It was not until 1939 that this extension was completed, connecting North Perth to Leederville.

Military equipment

During this period, the southern end of Smith’s Lake was used as a dumping ground for old vehicles, and reportedly old military equipment. Many locals recall playing in the swamps and market gardens and scavenging rubbish from the dumps as children. Brian Mouchemore, (born in 1946) recalls; “Smith’s Lake was, I suppose, my primary discovery when I was a little kid. I wandered down the end of the street and found this great area – with lots of bird-life and things going on and you know, the whole populace of young children in the area were always at the lake.

“Through the centre of Smith’s Lake there was a drain which we used to get into, particularly in summer. It was fairly fresh spring water and we used to get in there and sometimes the water would be 18 inches to 2 feet deep and we could swim in there and slide on the slime on the side of the drain. Towards the southern end of this drain, there were a few large ponds with springs in them and we used to swim in those.”

In the early 1950s, locals suggested the City of Perth turn the ‘eyesore’ of Smith’s Lake into playing fields, recreation reserve and a sporting complex. The cost and difficulties with drainage knocked the idea on the head. However, Perth council proceeded to re-plan, reclaim and resume land in the area. Seventy-six residential and 10 commercial lots were created, along with Charles Veryard Reserve.

In the late 1990s, a Smith’s Lake Precinct Group was formed to coordinate efforts to rehabilitate the former lake and wetland. In 2002, planting, artworks and historical signs, including a ‘speaking rock’, were installed at Smith’s Lake as part of the former Vincent Wetlands Trail.

Today, all that remains of the former wetland is the compensating basin on Bourke & Kayle Streets known as the Smith’s Lake Drainage Reserve.

To learn more about Smith’s Lake, read A Short History of Smith’s Lake (2001) by Sally Lake. It’s at the Vincent Local History Centre or via the library’s online catalogue: https://library.vincent.wa.gov.au/

THE first stage of a memorial to the HMAS Perth (I) was completed last month with the installation of a half-size replica of the ill-fated cruiser’s propeller at the Navy League headquarters.

The memorial includes a Wall of Remembrance which has the names of those on the HMAS Perth (I) when she was overcome by a superior Japanese naval force and sunk during the Battle of Sunda Strait in March 1942.

The USS Houston was also sunk with great loss of life in the same battle.

The propeller was modeled on a Royal Navy Admiralty 1930s design, cast and machined by Veem engineers in Canning Vale. The memorial is the result of work carried out by the Navy League (WA Division) and the HMAS Perth (I) Memorial Foundation, who hope to complete the second stage by mid 2023.

The memorial was designed by Charles Smith and Joan Walsh-Smith who were also responsible for the HMAS Sydney memorial in Geraldton.

A GROUP of determined Inglewood residents is set to test Stirling council’s policy of not closing right of ways until there is unanimous support from adjoining residents.

ROWs are strips of common land at the rear of properties left over from the days when night soilmen would bring their carts to empty the pots of outdoor dunnies.

About a decade after the first failed attempt to close a ROW running parallel to Dundas and Normanby roads near Inglewood Primary School, the council has come up against a group of neighbours who refuse to be discouraged by the red tape they’ve faced.

It started in 2021 when a ratepayer asked the council to revisit the survey done a decade earlier as he believed most of those who were adamant it should remain open had since moved on.

Twenty five of his neighbours backed the closure, but four were still opposed and another five didn’t respond, which was taken as a kind of refusal.

The council told the group unanimous support was needed to progress the closure.

Undeterred, 14 of the landowners came back with a petition in March this year, complaining about crime and anti-social behaviour in the ROW, including finding drug paraphernalia, fires, noise, trespassing and burglaries. 

They were told to go back and get their neighbour’s approval, but instead have continued to make regular deputations; to the point council officers have now found a way to get it on the agenda so councillors can deal with it.

Consent

“Where unanimous consent is not obtained, in limited circumstances, council may still choose to consider an application for closure and formally advertise the proposal for comment,” a report to this week’s meeting said.

“Under the circumstances, to allow the closure request to be formally discussed and considered by council, approval is sought to advertise the proposal in accordance with Section 52 of the Land Administration Act 1997.”

If it gets up at this week’s meeting, the closure would go before the WA Planning Commission – which might still say no if everyone’s not agreeing.

MOSMAN PARK’S Tim Gourlay will raise money for charity by windsurfing 1000km during Movember, culminating in an epic 240km sail from Cape Naturaliste to Perth.

A former windsurfing world champion, Gourlay says lots of people do long-distance bike rides to raise funds for the Movember Foundation, so he thought he’d mix it up with a windsurfing challenge.

“I’ll have to be out pretty much every day,” he says.

“It will mainly be around Fremantle and out to the islands; I’ll do trips out to Garden Island, Carnac and Rottnest. 

“I work in ship hydrodynamics, so I know to stay out of the way of the ships!

“The board is an old racing windsurfer which goes well upwind, so I’ll probably do some trips up and down the river between Fremantle and Perth too.

“I’ll try to windsurf from Cape Naturaliste back to Perth: I’ll sail as far as I can each day, and sleep in a campground or on the beach at night. I expect to be pretty sore at the end of that.”

Gourlay is a bit of a modest wind-surfing ace – he won the Windsurfer LT lightweight world title in 2019 at Lake Garda in Italy, and is not long back from the 2022 windsurfing world championships in Italy, where at the age of 49 he came third in the lightweight division.

He says he first started raising money for the Movember Foundation, which highlights men’s health issues, back in his uni days in Adelaide in the 1990s.

“Since then, it’s become a major charity, raising money for men’s mental health and suicide prevention,” Gourley says. “Talking to your mates is good and talking to someone independent is also good. 

“Movember works on other men’s health issues, such as testicular cancer and prostate cancer.”

Fellow wind-surfing ace and friend Jay Wild – who also competed at the 2022 windsurfing world championships and came fourth in the medium light division – has donated $1000 to the challenge.

“We recently had a mate from the windsurfing community take his own life back in July so it make this mission even more poignant,” he says.

For the past 13 years, Wild has run Wear2 in Fremantle, a clothes shop with an eclectic mix of surfwear, vintage clothing, rock merch, local brands and footwear.

He says Gourlay came up with the idea for the “crazy” 1000km challenge when they were in Sicily competing at the world championships. 

“It’s a great cause to be involved with and it will be a very challenging month for him especially the run from Cape Nat to Freo,” Wild says. 

“He is an experienced hand at this sort of thing. A couple of years ago as part of Movember, he windsurfed from Perth to Geraldton, camping at remote islands and beaches along the way. 

“He hit some pretty inclement weather along the way but pulled off the stunt nonetheless!”

To donate money to Gourlay’s Movember challenge go to au.movember.com/mospace/14165763

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

DIY rev-heads making residents’ lives a misery

AN explosion in DIY tutorials about how to remove mufflers is creating a new generation of Perth revheads who’ve taken their chariots to the next level of growl.

But as more residents and business owners say they are fed up with the ear-splitting noise, it appears police have turned a deaf ear to the problem.

Mechanic Simon Wells says he’s noticed an increase of “zooted up” four-wheel drives and high-performance cars on the streets, but reckons fewer people are asking his workshop to do these modifications.

“What’s happening is young kids now have money, are buying old performances cars and cheaply modd-ing them themselves such as removing the muffler or DPF,” Mr Wells said.

He noted the thousands of tutorials on platforms like YouTube teaching car owners how to turn their mum-mobile into a WRX sound-alike.

A quick internet search of “muffler delete” returns 812,000 YouTube tutorials and “DPF removal” 128,000 tutorials.

Amazingly, removing the muffler on a car is not illegal in WA if you can keep the noise down some other way, however removing the DPF (diesel particulate filter) which makes a louder noise is against the law.

WA Police said they’d only really step in for a repeat offender who was easily identifiable by being at the same place regularly.

“While the focus of traffic patrols and traffic enforcement activity across the state remain the key causal factors of serious and fatal crashes, where needed targeted enforcement activities relating to unnecessarily noisy vehicles may be considered where there is evidence such activity is causing a significant and ongoing detriment to residents and/or businesses,” a spokesperson for WA Police said.

“If a pattern to the timing and locations can be shown, it would make it easier to justify the deployment of police resources away from their primary duties.”

Maylands resident Jim (not his real name) told the Voice he was refilling his car at a service station in Guildford Road recently, when a couple of motorcyclists stopped at a nearby intersection and revved their machines.

He reckons it sounded like “a series of loud explosions” going off.  

“The noise would have seriously affected – perhaps permanently – the hearing of any pedestrian within a radius of 200 plus meters and some nearby motorists as well,” Jim said.

He’s sure the machines’ exhaust mufflers had been removed and says that can be dangerous for people’s hearing.

His own pre-existing tinnitus condition was worsened by the noise of the motorbikes.

Jim would like removing a muffler to be banned and drivers caught making too much noise issued with an immediate “no revving” notice and be forced to reinstall an effective muffler in order to renew their car’s license.

Mirjana Matic has lived in her Fremantle home for 25 years, but says the last year has been a nightmare because of revheads.

She says the cars crank up around 3pm and roar past midnight most days, the noise literally shaking her house. As a result she hasn’t had a good night’s sleep for months and says the tiredness is affecting her mental health.

She’s also got high blood pressure for the first time in her life, while she believes the noise is partly responsible for another neighbour’s recent hospitalisation.

“He gave up. His daughter said she did bring it up with the cops and told them what’s going on, and she said nobody replied.”

One local hotrod enthusiast, who didn’t want to be named, admitted he’d removed his Nissan GQ Patrol’s muffler at home using YouTube tutorials.

He also has illegal tyres, a illegal lift, no muffler and no sway bars – something that should make him a magnet for police. 

“I’ve been breath-oed by a copper in my car and they didn’t sticker me,” he said.

Why the modifications?

“Cause it sounds good,” he said.

One YouTuber proudly showing off his mods bragged that his mates “can hear me coming a mile off – so can everyone else”. 

The local DIY modder said he’d driven past any number of police cars and never got a backward look, but the police spokesperson said if they did notice illegal modifications they might take action.

“Any detected breach of this vehicle standard may result in police issuing a defect notice to a vehicle, requiring it to be inspected by a Department of Transport vehicle assessor for roadworthiness,” he said.

by ISABELLA HOLLAND and STEVE GRANT