BEATTY Park Leisure Centre has reached its diamond jubilee 60th year, a little creaky and a little leaky, but still working where it counts with nearly a million people a year coming through the gates.

The centre was purpose-built for the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, and after three days of events it spent most of the late ‘60s and ‘70s as a concert venue hosting bands like The Bee Gees, Deep Purple and Santana.

Bee Gees

The building was later handed to Vincent council to take care of and it officially became a leisure centre in 1994.

Vincent’s now hosting a celebration of the diamond jubilee by turning the centre’s caf√© retro with memorabilia and a series of 12 videos from Beatty Park patrons sharing their tales, including a confession from a swimmer who claims they snuck in to use the pool a day before the Commonwealth Games.

November 25 has been set aside to pay homage to the centre’s concert days by bringing back the music with their Sixties Sundowner, and a retro family day on November 26 brings in gogodancers, hula-hoopers and a Kombi photo booth.

Reflection

Mayor Emma Cole says the centre is “iconic” and “it has gone from hosting athletes, to rock stars, to people from all around Perth who want to keep fit and healthy and who love the sense of community that comes with being a member.

“The 60th anniversary celebrations are a time of reflection and celebration, but it’s also a good time for us to talk about what we want the future of Beatty Park to look like.” It hasn’t been cheap for the council to look after the state heritage site: The council’s spent millions so far keeping it chugging along and just last week had to commit another $278,000 to fix water ingress into the original 1962 grandstand, which has been closed to the public for years due to public safety.

The city’s next step is to try to secure some state or federal government funding to look into refurbing the grandstand’s main entrance so it can be used by the public again.

Deep memories

CONCERT-GOER Larry Wale shared his memories of Beatty Park gigs in the 1970s seeing acts like Suzie Quatro, Free, Manfred Man and Deep Purple: “I remember at one concert the girls were jumping in the water to get to the band,” he said.

“I can’t remember which band it was, whether it was Daddy Cool or Deep Purple, one of those two.

“The acoustics in the actual arena was great and the setup of the stage was good, everyone had good vision.

“It was very exciting to be a part of seeing these overseas acts at the time. Everything was happening, here.”

The Beatty nostalgia series is up at: https://www.beattypark.com.au/about/sixty-years

By DAVID BELL

STIRLING councillor Keith Sargent has stepped down after being charged with possessing child exploitation material.

Police seized electronic devices during a search of his Mirrabooka house on September 1 and after a preliminary examination of two devices police alleged “material consistent with child exploitation material was located”.

Mr Sargent fronted Perth Magistrates Court the day of his arrest and was granted bail ahead of a September 29 court appearance.

The arrest came during a joint operation involving WA Police, federal police and border force that saw 45 people in WA charged, including a City of Stirling employee who has since resigned. 

Stirling mayor Mark Irwin fronted the media on Friday September 2 and said he’d called on Mr Sargent to resign, and by Saturday Mr Sargent had stood down. 

“We have initiated the process to hold a by-election for the Balga Ward before the end of the year,” he said.

The council would not reveal whether the charged employee came into contact with children at work.

by DAVID BELL

INGLEWOOD local Katherine Azzam holds the distinction of being Perth’s only aerial violinist.

“There’s a few in the world,” Azzam tells us. “Circus is hard, and violin is really hard as well. But it’s really fun for me. Playing in a classical orchestra, it’s very cut and dry, whereas in circus I can choose the music, I can choose what I play… it’s quirky, high energy, and really fun.”

Originally a classical orchestra violinist, she took to the air after taking some circus classes and offering to play some violin for their shows. 

Then came the idea to both play and perform: “One of the performers says, ‘hey, have you seen this chick Janis Martin? She’s this American chick, she’s phenomenal, she’s ex-military, she went to Juilliard… and she plays aerial violin.”

After studying up, Azzam took to the trapeze, testing out different techniques and timings to play amid the manoeuvres. 

She says “the hardest thing was designing the harness so the violin doesn’t flap around” when it needs to be stowed for the hands-on stunts, and from there “it’s about figuring out the trickiest moves you can do without the bow going into your eye”.

Azzam performs in the one night only show Confetti that’s celebrating 10 years of circus company Kinetica, combining aerials, acrobatics, drag and burlesque at the Rechabite on September 16 at 6.30pm.

by DAVID BELL

ANYONE needing the toilet in a hurry at Dianella Library has been out of luck with constant blockages and unacceptably long delays to get them fixed, library-goer Adrian Davies says.

Mr Davies tells us “there’s been an ongoing problem with the fact that the public toilets have been unavailable, caused by backflow of sewage not going through the sewer… that means the toilets don’t work, and if you do flush you get your own back, in a comedic sense.

“About four or five weeks ago we had a problem that took a week or more to get fixed.”

The repair seemed to be only temporary, Mr Davies says, and after a brief respite of flushing the toilets last week started showing signs of slow-flowing and were soon closed off again.

Mr Davies says library visitors have been directed to use the toilets at Dianella Plaza across the road, but that’s not tenable for people who urgently need a loo: “You’ve got elderly people going there and in need of the toilet. How they’re going to run quickly over to the Dianella Plaza eludes me … having to cross the road, you’re just setting yourself up for casualties,” he told the Voice.

We put his concerns to Stirling council and got a response back from a city spokesperson saying they were aware of the issues and have been working on them since early this year. They blamed sewer saboteurs. 

“Many of the recent issues have been as a direct result of inappropriate use of the facilities, and the City is disappointed that this amenity has required such frequent attention.

“Earlier this year the Dianella Library experienced several sewerage blockages, and upon investigation it was found that there was damage to the sewerage infrastructure, including damaged pipes from trees and portions of the pipe needing replacement.”

In April the council re-lined the damaged sections of pipe which seemed to address sewage overflow, but then:

“In August, further issues were reported and were found to be caused by the flushing of cloth, bandages, towels, hand towels and nappies down toilets, which has caused significant blockages and required multiple visits to make good.

“In response, the City has provided nappy and sanitary bins, removed paper towel dispensers and installed hand dryers, and will also install signage to remind users to flush only toilet paper.”

Mr Davies says more prompt and permanent fixes are required. He points out the library is “a public building that the City of Stirling own and control,” and under the Building Code they’re required to have working toilets.

“If you’ve got a picture theatre, if [the toilets] don’t work then they close the place down. So why are they treating their own selves differently, or giving themselves a leniency they wouldn’t give to other people?

“It needs to be properly addressed.”

by DAVID BELL

PERTH has its first street dance studio aiming to inject some authenticity back into street styles and pay due respect to the cultures that created them.

Street styles are often divorced from their cultural context when they’re taught here, so dance teachers Isabella Boladeras and RHung wanted to ensure the teaching was true to the roots at their newly opened Leederville dance studio The Spot. 

“There’s this whole area of the dance scene, a lot of the styles that came out of the US‚Äîhip hop, popping, locking, waacking, breaking ‚Äî so many styles that no one understands in Perth,” Ms Boladeras says.

“All the street styles get pushed under the ‘hip hop’ label which is not necessarily correct.

“There’s a whole genre of dance that’s just not being represented correctly. And it’s not anyone’s fault, we’re just not educated in the history of the styles.”

The street styles are “the ones that weren’t made in a studio,” Boladeras says, often developed in clubs and dance halls as people shared moves and built off each others’ repertoire. “It’s an organic way of creating a style.”

Culture and politics

The styles are often intertwined with culture and politics: Dancehall’s origins have been traced to Jamaica’s urban poor in Kingston, descendants of slaves excluded from high society dances. Waacking, a freeform style marked by intricate arm movements and striking poses, was forged by Black and Latin dancers in gay clubs in 1970s California. It dwindled during the AIDS epidemic, and is now resurging due to prominent performers on TV dance shows and social media. 

Boladeras says it’s important to “educate people on where it’s come from and pay respect to [the originators], because it wasn’t always easy for those people that created the styles”. 

The Spot’s instructors go to great lengths to learn styles authentically, travelling or skyping to learn from those in the know and pass it on to students. 

“A lot of us travel over east and to Asia to train, and me and RHung were thinking ‘why aren’t we a training location? Why isn’t Perth somewhere people want to come and train?’,” Boladeras says.

“Mentoring that new generation is something we’re really passionate about.”

The Spot
2/220 Carr Place, Leederville thespotperth.com
info@thespotperth.com

AFTER reading our recent histories of the Pickle District, Voice reader Marie Slyth got in touch to offer her piece ‘Memories of Golding Street, Newcastle Street and Strathcona Street’ from her book “A Heritage Walk”, reminiscing on how the district got its new name.

[KIT] Woods mentions Sandovers — the furniture and hardware factory which occupied a number of lots beside the paddock at the top east end of the corner of Golding Street and Newcastle Street. 

South of the paddock on the east side of Golding Street were four semi-detached houses beside a small vinegar factory up from the corner of Aberdeen Street.

I seem to recall that the factory was formerly the Best West Pickle factory from which the surrounding residents regularly experienced the pungent odours which it frequently emitted. 

Kit’s husband Laurie Woods worked there. 

Tony Waters remembers walking down Golding Street from Florence Steet as a boy to get the vinegar bottle filled up at the Vinegar Factory for his mother and seeing big vats inside.

Across Aberdeen Street was Hamilton Park. 

Laurie Woods’ family — the Goldings – actually had some dairy cattle which grazed in Hamilton Park before it was ever a park. It is believed Golding Street was named after that family.

Mrs Woods owned a house in Golding Street on the west side of the street — again, here were four semi-detached houses on that side of Golding Street. Her house was beside the Old Flour Mill which was on the west corner of Aberdeen and Golding Streets.

When Mrs Woods was first married she and her husband Laurie lived in one of the houses in Newcastle Street opposite the bottom of Strathcona Street. 

They sold their house there and moved into 12 Strathcona Street which they bought in approximately 1956/57, next door to the Slyth family at number 10. She has lived at Strathcona Street for nearly 60 years now.

The Woods’ two boys went to the Newcastle Street Infants School and then later to Leederville State School.

Mrs Woods remembers the Australian family, the Wignalls, who owned the corner shop on the corner of Strathcona and Carr Streets in the 1940s.

LYNDON DADSWELL’S sculpture The Wildflower State is coming home after two WA bidders determined to see it return smashed the auction record for the artist’s works.

The successful bid was $81,000, but with the buyer’s premium and GST the final cost will be $94,365, Lloyds Auctioneers head of fine art and luxury Amanda Benson told the Voice.

“Importantly it is going back to WA, and that’s something we were hoping for as the vendor is from WA and indicated that was where they believed it should be,” Ms Benson said.

“The artist record price up until this auction, set at the peak of the Australian art market in 2007, was $34,000, so this has pushed that up by a multiple.”

Ms Benson said eastern states bidders dropped out around the earlier mark, as their interest was as an investment, but the two local bidders continued – unaware of each other’s desire to secure it for WA – until the record price was hit.

“As someone that has lived in WA, I know that Western Australians highly value their cultural heritage,” Ms Benson said.

While The Wildflower State was purchased by a private individual, Ms Benson said they had a prominent company so she has hopes the sculpture will end up on public view.

It has been at Macquarie University’s sculpture park on loan for around 25 years.

Dadswell was the first sculptor to be appointed an official Australian war artist. He resigned his commission in 1942 and returned to the East Sydney Technical College, where he’d just started teaching before war broke out.

The Wildflower State was commissioned by the Commonwealth Bank for the opening of its new building on the corner of Hay and William streets in 1960, and marked a point in the artist’s career when he embraced abstracts.

Edith Cowan University honorary professor Ted Snell remembers the sculpture while it was on the bank and says he was intrigued because it was contentious.

“I think there was even a Rigby cartoon in “I think there was even a Rigby cartoon in the Daily News about it,” Prof Snell said.

“I do bemoan the fact that so much of the public art in our cities has been destroyed, removed or desecrated.

“Some has been saved and repositioned, such as Howard Taylor’s Cyclops from outside the ANZ Bank building in St George’s Terrace which is now at Curtin University, but it is always a risk when developers see an opportunity.”

Prof Snell said it would be great to see The Wildflower State back in WA and hopes that an appropriate site can be found.

by STEVE GRANT

THE Rottnest Island Authority refuses to say whether it jumped the gun and gave a developer approval to clear native vegetation before it checked with the state’s environmental watchdog.

The Prendiville Group has applied to build private accommodation for 211 staff from the Samphire Rottnest hotel (“Outrage over Rotto units,” Voice, August 27, 2022) and its development application explicitly states the RIA “approved … a clearing permit”.

That’s angered the Rottnest Society, which says the proposed site contains valuable mature vegetation and Prendiville shouldn’t have been given approval before the clearing was run past the state Department of Water and Environment Regulation, nor pre-empted the public consultation period.

The Voice asked the RIA whether it had approved the clearing, but got a series of non-answers – even when we went back and asked directly: “Is the development application correct in stating that the RIA has ‘approved the area and a clearing permit?’”

The authority would only sayç it “is applying” to DWER for a clearing permit on behalf of the proponents, which is something of an update from its website which has it in the ‘to do’ list.

“Permission (a permit) to take flora is also required to be granted by RIA under the Rottnest Island Authority Regulations 1998,” the authority’s response to the Herald continued its dance around the actual question.

“Required Environmental Protection Act 1986 approvals will need to be obtained prior to development proceeding. The current public consultation process is being undertaken to inform RIA’s determination of the development application.”

The Voice had more luck with other areas that concern the Rottnest Society, such as whether additional staff living on the island would put more pressure on the authority’s own budget through increased infrastructure needs.

“The island’s infrastructure has been, and continues to be, enhanced following significant investments by the state and federal governments in recent years to support growing visitor arrivals to the island,” the spokesperson said.

“The staff housing proposed is largely replacing existing ageing staff accommodation and transferring the responsibility for provision of such housing from RIA to the larger island businesses.

“This strategic approach is outlined in the Rottnest Island Management Plan and will contribute to the sustainability of the island.”

The authority has also put the behaviour of staff in Samphire’s court, amidst the society’s concerns they’ll turn the accommodation into a party venue that may disrupt other island visitors.

“Island businesses (who are the ‘tenants’ under the staff housing leases) are responsible for ensuring their staff (being the occupants of the properties) comply with the terms and conditions of the leases,” the spokesperson said.

by STEVE GRANT