Five bedrooms and six bathrooms on a giant 809sqm block.
There’s more – it’s on an elevated block on Majestic Parade, one of the most desirable streets in the suburb.
The property is an entertainer’s dream and has multiple living spaces over two levels, a giant theatre room and huge balcony, so no shortage of space for a growing brood to stretch out.
With six bedrooms at your disposal you could have multiple generations living under one roof and still not feel cramped.
The open plan lounge/dining/kitchen area is bright and airy, with the large floor tiles keeping things nice and cool during summer.
The large modern kitchen has a double oven and plenty of bench and cupboard space.
Out the back is a spacious courtyard with a nice patch of lawn, patio, pergola, and a built-in BBQ and sink in the corner.
It’s a big backyard, but also low maintenance.
The Voice really likes the first-floor balcony, which has enough room for a dining and lounge setting, and can be accessed from the upstairs living area or the second bedroom.
The main bedroom is a cracker with a huge walk-in robe and a contemporary ensuite.
The home includes ducted AC and a double garage with additional storage.
Situated on Majestic Parade, it’s close to lots of reserves and parks, Dianella Primary College, and all the shops, cafes and restaurants in the town centre.
This massive, stylish home is perfect for a large inter-generational family.
Derek Schapper’s upcoming exhibition of timber wall art at Earlywork Gallery in South Fremantle is an impressive and highly original expression of modernist and minimalist form.
Large scale displays of uniquely designed birds and fish intermingle with a variety of scenes including formal Italian gardens, a French water tower, an Albany seascape, botanicals and ancient rocky gorges. The breadth of these styles demonstrates Schapper’s evolving design aesthetic.
Derek Schapper. Photo by Kirsten Sivyer
“Originally, I adopted, revived and adapted examples of modernist designs into timber wall ornaments with an Australian/European flavour. I began making mainly birds and fish, and mounting them off-wall to create depth and shadows.
“My new designs depict both the man-made and natural world. ‘Modernism’ is a very broad term which encompasses many different ways of effecting strong simple designs with minimal ornamentation. I like to think that what I do is one of those ways.”
Handmade from primarily West Australian timbers these original artworks spring from the greatest designer of them all – Nature.
“The choice of timber is part of the design process. I generally use Western Australia’s unique timbers, especially jarrah. WA has a wide variety of Eucalyptus with colours ranging from deep red to creamy white. Banksia, casuarina and melaleuca add further possibilities in texture, grain and colour.”
This is Schapper’s first exhibition in Fremantle, curated by Kate Lindsay at Earlywork Gallery.
“Earlywork Gallery is ideal for my work in that it allows large scale display of birds. All birds need space and mine are no exception.”
DEREK SCHAPPER Modernism: Another View 12 February – 3 March 2025 Open Daily 10am – 4pm Earlywork Gallery, 330 South Terrace (cnr Wardie St) South Fremantle www.earlywork.gallery
Emmy nominated Sarah McGuinness brings critically acclaimed London show to Perth.
This is no ordinary cabaret. Sarah has been the muse of industry legends for over two decades. This is her life story fresh from the UK. The muse of industry legends for over two decades, Emmy nominated, Sarah McGuinness transformed her behind-the-scenes life with the stars into a one-woman musical cabaret, which took London (UK) by storm at the end of 2024.
Sarah McGuinness
Now this feisty doyenne to the stars, strips back the shrouds of celebrity mystery and takes her audience on a jukebox-journey of her career in showbusiness, as she brings a pocket version of her no-nonsense highly ac-claimed show, fresh from London to Perth’s, The Duke of George, on Thursday 13 February.
The Emmy-nominated documentary maker and musician, also known as an industry muse to entertainment legends, has turned the lens on herself to present a brand new poignant and powerful cabaret telling her life story. The critically acclaimed director of Believe: The Eddie Izzard Story and Noma: the story of Noma Dumezweni presents an extraordinary musical journey of her own life, blending the power of live performance and memory. Through the music of David Bowie, Kate Bush, Kurt Weill, Sondheim and Kander & Ebb’s “Cabaret” as well as a few of her own songs, this production takes audiences from Sarah’s childhood on the Irish border in Derry, exam-ining both her complicated relationship with her Irish roots and her family’s dysfunction, through to the heights of her international success as her life intertwines with entertainment icons.
Grit, Glitter & Gaslight is a thrilling performance not to be missed – be one of the first in Australia to experience this incredible show. Tickets on sale now.
Grit, Glitter & Gaslight…. a cabaret musicalThe Duke of George – Thursday 13 February, 9.30pm
Join St Pat’s in transforming their Fremantle Home St Pat’s have kicked off an appeal to raise funds to replace its aging and no longer fit for purpose Day Centre with a new Engagement Hub on Beach Street. Funds raised will help fit out the new space with updated health clinics and other vital service delivery.
The not-for-profit is seeking donations to help it deliver the best support for people facing homelessness, amid “the worst housing crisis WA has ever seen”. St Pat’s Chief Executive Officer Michael Piu said the homelessness support service and community housing provider is seeing an unprecedented number of people who need their help.“The face of homelessness in our communities now includes more women, families, and young people than ever before,” Mr Piu said. “In response to this crisis, and thanks to the State Government and major donors, we are expanding our Fremantle home to provide a new, safe and welcoming Engagement Hub, purpose-built housing and essential specialist support services.”
Fremantle Dockers Captain Alex Pearce with St Pat’s guest Peter. The Fremantle Football Club players have thrown their support behind St Pat’s, making a sizeable donation to their new Engagement Hub.
As work on St Pat’s new home commences, the Fremantle-based organisation – which has been supporting people experiencing homelessness in Perth’s south metropolitan region for more than 50 years – is turning to the public to help them fit-out the facility. “We need our community’s help to equip our new Engagement Hub with everything we need to deliver the professional, specialist services that break the cycle of homelessness,” Mr Piu said.
Denara, Peter and Molly with the Fremantle Dockers’ Next Generation Association players, who helped St Pat’s kick off their Engagement Hub Appeal.
When the doors of St Pat’s Engagement Hub open at the end of 2025, it will house new health clinics, including an optometry clinic, to deliver free health care, two dental clinics – doubling St Pat’s capacity to deliver pro-bono dental care, private showers and an in-house laundry, giving dignity to people experiencing rough sleeping. The new hub will also provide a safe, welcoming environment for families with children, including a Wellbeing Cafe, providing all-day access to nutritious meals as well as training opportunities for people ready to take the next step on their journey back to independent living.
“Our new Engagement Hub will help thousands more people on their journey out of homelessness and will be a game changer in our work to end chronic homelessness once and for all in our community,” Mr Piu said. “Please help us break the cycle. Give to our appeal today.”
“NONNA’S dead. Maria’s gay. No, these two things do not correlate” is the hilarious tagline to Dakota Gaudio’s new production A Third Place opening at the Blue Room Theatre next month.
A Third Place highlights the intersection of queerness, grief, religion, and culture experienced by so many children and grandchildren of Italian immigrants to Australia, and is directed by Curtin University student Dakota Gaudio who also stars in the play.
“The overarching force of the show is that one of the main characters, Maria, calls her Nonna from Melbourne and has this conversation with her,” Ms Gaudio said.
“Within a week, Nonna passes away, and of course the rumour in the family is that Maria killed her Nonna because she came out over the phone.”
It’s a witty yet emotionally-charged premise developed by Ms Gaudio and her team, and written into the script by the cast and crew’s personal experiences and improvisations.
• Isla Simeoni and Dakota Gaudio star in A Third Place. Photo by Dakota Hartig
“We’ll throw improvisations out there and see what sticks in order to make a script, rather than the traditional writing process of just sitting down and writing a script,” Ms Gaudio said.
“I personally like this process a lot more, because it’s representative of the script being about community and also includes experiences of culture as well, so I felt like it wasn’t right for me to write from my perspective.”
Ms Gaudio says it was “so interesting” to explore the intersection of queerness, Catholicism, and Italian heritage, and has structured the play so audiences can relate themselves – and make up their own minds – about these hefty themes.
“We had so many conversations about how queerness is seen, and how you can even enjoy your religion and culture while also being queer,” Ms Gaudio said.
“Religion has such a strong relationship with Italian culture, so we really explored how to identify with your culture and how you can go to church with your Nonna, who may really love religion and want you to engage, but what if you are queer?”
It’s an incredibly personal premise that was also derived from the death of Ms Gaudio’s own beloved Nonna, so she’s ensured that her character Maria is “very different” from herself.
“Performing material based on personal experience is very much a double-edged sword,” Ms Gaudio said.
“When you feel super passionate about something, and you feel that impulse to write, then I think it’s creative duty to get as much as you can out on paper.
“You just have to be very careful as an artist to work with your boundaries and knowing when to take things out if they’re too close to home.”
The title, A Third Place, pays tribute to the dwindling social spaces, apart from home and work, that are so well loved by the Italian culture – Ms Gaudio highlighted how her Nonno would often go to the Italian Club in Fremantle to cope with the death of his wife.
It’s this relatability that Ms Gaudio hopes will draw audiences in.
“So many experiences that we’ve put in there are synonymous with an Italian upbringing,” Ms Gaudio said.
“It’s so important and special to feel belonging as an audience member.
“I’m so excited for my own family, and their friends and their families, to bring their parents and Nonnas and Nonnos to experience it.”
A Third Place will be playing at The Blue Room Theatre from 11-15 February.
TIM MUIRHEAD is a Fremantle resident and worked for several decades in the related areas of reconciliation, and community development. In both fields of work he’s spoken with thousands of people about ‘the date’.
LIKE it or not, the party’s over for January 26.
It’s just not fun anymore; it’s time to let it go and find a day that we can all celebrate with gusto.
And here’s some good news: I meet surprisingly few people who particularly care about the actual date for our national day.
Most of us just want to enjoy it.
So the question is no longer ‘should we change the date?’; it’s ‘what should we change it to?’
Change
Some thoughts:
Our nation, like every other nation on earth, is a rich, confusing, multifaceted, often indefinable entity.
We share it in common, yet rarely see it exactly the same.
That’s how it should be.
Loving a nation is like loving—deeply loving—a person.
The more closely you connect with them the more you come to see and accept all their flaws and strengths and achievements and failings.
We can never truly love a person or a nation if we focus on only one aspect of their kaleidoscope being.
And there’s the rub — if we try to choose a date that attaches to any particular event in our history, we diminish ourselves to just one aspect.
Inevitably we leave out whole swathes of our populace, and whole swathes of the complex experience of being us.
Let’s take just three of the many defining elements of our nation: the sixty(ish) thousand year history of human connection to, and care for, this land we exist on; the recent British colonisation; and the richly transforming waves of multiculturalism.
What ‘date’ can possibly hold these together, without simplifying us down to almost nothing (and then there’s the wars, the democratic and political struggles and victories, the technological achievements, the various national tragedies, and on and on and on.)?
No date can do it.
So let’s not just ‘change the date’, let’s drop the ‘date’!
Have a National DAY instead.
If it’s good enough for Easter, surely it’s good enough for Oz.
Here’s a ‘starter list’ for choosing the Day: It would need to be:
• during school term (unlike the current Day), so that our kids can engage in rigorous dialogue about their various perspectives of, and hopes for, our nation;
• in good weather. (Hmmm…not as simple as it sounds; the far north may disagree with the south on that one. Let’s chat).
• on a Friday. (What’s more Australian than the long weekend? I suppose it could be a Monday but…y’know…hangovers. )
• easily identified (eg: Friday 3 in February) so that we can all plan for it.
Australia is not one thing or the other, it’s all of it. So let’s just choose a day and then, whoever we are and wherever we are, let’s party, and argue, and listen, and speak, and marvel and grieve and connect with this extraordinary, weird, confusing, troubled, rich nation that so many of us love to call home.
THE WA Alliance to End Homelessness is celebrating international recognition after its Advance to Zero initiative received a prestigious World Habitat Award.
Presented annually in partnership with UN-Habitat, the award acknowledges innovative and sustainable solutions that improve lives worldwide.
The AtoZ initiative, which focuses on ending homelessness by addressing rough sleeping, was one of nine winners selected from 111 globl applicants.
WAAEH executive officer David Pearson said the award was an “incredible honour”.
“It shines a global spotlight on our efforts to end homelessness, starting with rough sleeping,” Mr Pearson said.
“This recognition will inspire hope, encourage local communities, and reinforce that homelessness can be ended in Western Australia.”
The initiative has put rare runs on the board against a notoriously stubborn opponent.
In September 2023, Mandurah became just the second Australian city to see a sustained reduction in rough sleepers, while 1858 people have found permanent housing under AtoZ since its inception.
Housing and homelessness minister John Carey MLA said the Cook government had invested in AtoZ because it recognised the value of up-to-date data on rough sleeping.
“We’ve also expanded assertive outreach across key locations, ensuring rough sleepers are connected to the support services they need. This is part of our Housing First approach to breaking the cycle of homelessness,” Mr Carey said.
AtoZ community coordinator Nick Mathieson said the awardhighlighted the, “tireless efforts of local teams and stakeholders who prioritise dignity, housing stability, and long-term outcomes for individuals experiencing homelessness.”
INTERGENERATIONAL connection is at the heart of a new not-for-profit idea targeting elderly loneliness through friendship with younger people.
Founded by Freo mum Melina Araujo, Find Your Granny is a platform aimed at forging connections between young children, their parents, and elderly people experiencing loneliness.
Harking from Venezuela, Ms Araujo is a single mum to five-year-old Dylan and works full-time as an industrial engineer; she says it’s “really hard” to establish and maintain relationships with people in her community.
• Dylan Araujo with his super adopted granny Marjorie Kerkhoff.
Connection
Ms Araujo’s family, including Dylan’s grandparents, is scattered worldwide, so Dylan does not have access to familial support.
By chance meeting, the pair met 79-year-old Marjorie Kerkhoff and the three hit it off, resulting in monthly visits to Mrs Kerkhoff’s home in York.
Dylan, who lives with autism and has a language and speech delay, found a friend and kindred spirit in Marjorie.
“When we were leaving one of the times, he said, ‘goodbye Mama’, to Marjorie,” Ms Araujo said.
“I never expected that…he obviously sees her as a mother figure, which is so special.
“She’s just been a blessing.”
Monthly visits soon turned into Ms Araujo and Dylan spending Christmas with Marjorie and her family down south – an important experience for the pair who do not have any other family in Perth.
“I was very close to my grandmother who still lives in Venezuela, and I really wanted that for Dylan, and for him to also experience that family connection meant a lot to me especially during Christmas,” Ms Araujo said.
“It has been so beautiful.”
• Dylan and Marjorie with his mum Melina.
Mrs Kerkhoff says forging a relationship with Dylan and his mum has been “wonderful”, especially given she does not have any grandchildren of her own.
“He’s a great little fellow, and he’s full of beans, full of energy…too much for me sometimes,” Mrs Kerkhoff said with a chuckle.
“He loves it up here, he’s got his toys, and my little chihuahua, and they get on.
“It’s really good having him around.”
Mrs Kerkhoff, who is a member of the York Shire’s Access and Inclusion Advisory Committee, says her friendship with Dylan has been “very helpful” for her to provide perspective to the committee.
Building
“When we have a problem, I can picture Dylan, and ask ‘how would this help him? How would this benefit him?’” Mrs Kerkhoff said.
“For example, if we’re building a playground and going to put all these things in to benefit a child with a disability, I will think of it [from Dylan’s perspective] which is really good.”
Ms Araujo says she hopes to facilitate more of these connections through Find Your Granny, and is even organising for Dylan’s daycare facility to visit a nursing home in the near future, inspired by the ABC’s hit show, Old People’s Home for Four Year Olds.
“My target is people like me, people with young kids, as well as the sons and daughters of elderly people without grandkids, so that they can connect,” Ms Araujo said.
“At [the nursing home], some of the residents are not even picked up by their families for Christmas, so it would be great if at least the children could come to visit them…it’s so important.”
More information is available on the Find your Granny Facebook page.
A RETIRED nurse and Fremantle author have collaborated on a book that hopes to inspire a new generation of nurses, while warning them of “dark forces” at play in hospitals which have diminished their ability to care for patients.
Live and Leave Well: Reflections of a Lifelong Nurse by Christian Mauri explores Fremantle Hospital-trained nurse Peter Rebbechi’s thoughts on the art of care, nursing as a vocation, and the importance of end-of-life planning. It’s being launch today (Saturday January 25) at the State Library of WA.
Ms Rebbechi was a veteran of the wards with close to 60 years’ experience, and was searching for someone to help share her reflections. With strong ties to Fremantle from her training in the 1960s, she found Christian Mauri, founder of Family Tales and a sociologist known for crafting meaningful narratives.
Their partnership, built on shared lunches and long strolls by Lake Gwelup, culminated in a work aimed at inspiring not only nurses but anyone involved in caregiving.
• Author Christian Mauri with his new book, a collaboration with retired nurse Peter Rebbechi.
“When I met her, she was this tiny old lady, really, really kind, and we kind of hit it off immediately,” Dr Mauri said.
For Ms Rebbechi, nursing was always more than a profession—it’s a vocation.
“She’s seen so many different changes to the nursing profession—even before it was a profession—throughout her entire time, that she recognises that nursing, above all, is a vocation,” Dr Mauri said.
“It’s a kind of calling that one has, and that’s the thread that runs through all the different changes that have happened for generations.”
Ms Rebbechi reflects on the erosion of simple yet profound acts of care, such as holding a patient’s hand or sitting by their bedside.
“She distinctly remembers watching nurses hold hands less and less for patients, nurses rubbing the shoulders of worried patients less and less; nurses developing relationships with patients less and less because they’re around rotating rosters, where it was a revolving door,” Dr Mauri said.
“Patients increasingly became bodies to be processed through the system, and nurses became basically cogs and levers.”
Ms Rebbechi said she feels for nurses today.
“My heart goes out to the young nurses,” she said.
“The way our world is going, they must not lose faith in the power of connection for human beings.
“Now more than ever, we must strive to uphold the art.
Her approach to care is firmly rooted in holistic nursing, which prioritises emotional and spiritual support alongside clinical treatment.
“Her idea is that there are certain parts of healing which aren’t accounted for through clinical tests,” Dr Mauri said.
“So the sheer power of sitting by your bedside and holding your hand and telling you things are going to be okay, that’s not necessarily medically robust, but to her understanding, that’s absolutely essential.”
The book is divided into three parts: reflections on nursing as a vocation, lessons from Rebbechi’s years in palliative care, and her advocacy for Advance Care Plans. These themes resonate deeply with her experiences, particularly her time working with patients at the end of life.
“She thinks people are attracted to nursing because they’ll be told, ‘Oh, you have such a caring personality,’ or ‘You like to take care of people,’ but then their workplace is so pressurised and it’s so risk-averse, and there are so many processes and operations in place, that after a while, people just will find that they complain that they don’t have time for that compassion anymore. In fact, their experience was called compassion fatigue,” Dr Mauri said.
The importance of Advance Care Plans is another key theme. “Her number one wish is for everyone to have an Advance Care Plan,” Mauri explained. “She’s seen so many young men come off motorbikes without an advanced care directive and so on.”
Ms Rebbechi’s career hasn’t been without challenges. As a director of nursing, she often clashed with colleagues who resisted her advocacy for compassionate care.
“Tragically, she dealt with a lot of bullying,” Dr Mauri revealed.
“She was running up against other people in the hospital and the health system, pulling her aside and saying, ‘Peter, we understand, but you can’t be doing this.’ It got to the point where she actually had to leave her career for a while due to the stresses of workplace bullying.”
The collaborative nature of the book adds a unique dimension to its message.
Ms Rebbechi encouraged Dr Mauri, who is half her age, to interpret her stories through his own lens.
“At first, it felt like ghostwriting,” Dr Mauri admitted.
“And then she was like, ‘Stop it, stop it, just listen to me and put it in your own words.’ She didn’t want an older person speaking to young nurses—she wanted that fresh perspective.”
The book’s visual elements also reflect this multi-generational collaboration. Local artist Gina Blakemore designed the cover, featuring an orange butterfly that holds personal significance for Ms Rebbechi, while Dr Mauri’s partner Kaylene Harris, contributed evocative interior illustrations inspired by their conversations.
The launch of Live and Leave Well will also feature Ms Rebbechi’s earlier biography, A Girl Called Peter. The event starts at 11am this morning (SaturdayJanuary 25), at the State Library of WA, and will include readings from the book and opportunities to meet the authors.
“This isn’t just a book for nurses,” Dr Mauri said.
“It’s for anyone who cares about caring. Peter’s lessons are universal, and we hope they’ll inspire readers to think about how we care for others—and ourselves.”
THE Fremantle Dockers players donated $20,000 to St Pat’s this week during a visit to the Fremantle charity’s community support centre.
According to St Pat’s, the money will go towards building an ‘engagement hub’ which will assist people experiencing homelessness.
The new development will provide services to people doing it tough including food, showers, healthcare, and dental care.
Dockers captain Alex Pearce down at St Pat’s. Photo by Jeff Atkinson
Fremantle captain Alex Pearce says he is “really proud” of the team’s efforts to donate money to the engagement hub.
“It’s always good to have moments like this where we step away from the training track and acknowledge we do have a bigger role in society and within the Freo community,” Pearce said.
“Hopefully this donation is a small step in a larger goal St Pat’s have, and that will help to provide greater services for people, and aim to end homelessness.”
The new facility is due to open at the end of this year.
Perth Voice Interactive 