Perth Voice Interactive

THE Galup (Lake Monger) story is coming to Vincent in September.

Galup (or Kaarlup, a place of fires) is known to Noongars as a traditional camping and meeting place, and as the site of a colonial massacre in 1830.

Noongar theatre-maker Ian Wilkes and artist and filmmaker Poppy van Oorde-Grainger created a multi-platform project telling its story based on an oral history from elder Doolann-Leisha Eatts, who’s since died.

After an initial in-person performance the project has been preserved as a virtual reality experience.

The VR experience will be at Vincent library throughout September.

Vincent Mayor Emma Cole tried the VR story, and said: “Galup is a place that resonates with so many people in our community, as a place to relax and enjoy nature, exercise, play and meet friends and family.

Wilkes and van Oorde-Grainger hold a talk about the project on September 8 from 4pm, it’s free but book on 9273 6090 or libadmin@ vincent.wa.gov.au

A SPATE of dog attacks has prompted Stirling council to consider “covert” park patrols to catch owners who illegally let them off the leash.

After Stirling recorded 75 serious attacks in one year, councillor Tony Krsticevic moved a motion calling for a report on ways to better deal with off-leash dogs, citing concerns about attacks on “people, other dogs and fauna”.

The report’s come back and says the 75 attacks in the 2020-21 financial year resulted in someone suffering an injury. 

During that time 65 infringements were issued, 10 dog attack investigations were referred for prosecution to the magistrates court, and 10 owners got a caution. 

Infringements

There were another 17 infringements and 19 cautions issued to owners of angry but ineffectual dogs whose attacks did not cause injuries. 

There have been a lot of complaints about dogs off leash in parks and reserves like Star Swamp Bushland, impacting vegetation and fauna. Sometimes there are “multiple complaints” about dogs running rampant in one spot when everyone disobeys leashing laws.

Council staff have suggested a range of techniques to clamp down, from old fashioned increased patrols and “covert enforcement” at reserves, to high tech digital tracking to analyse trends of where the most breaches are happening.

Councillors vote on the report and the five-point plan for stricter enforcement at the August 16 council meeting.

There’s about 21,000 dogs registered in Stirling and they don’t want to crack down too hard, noting that dog walkers are generally pretty good for neighbourhood security. 

by DAVID BELL

PERTH’s favourite Chook, The Perth Voice is a very rare bird.

Very few places have their own independent news outlet, like the Chook, delivered free every week to thousands of homes in the cities of Vincent, Bayswater and Perth. 

To do this the Chook relies on advertisements from healthy small business. Regrettably many of them, smashed by the pandemic, are yet to recover. 

If you know any advertisers who could benefit from promoting their products and services suggest to them they advertise in the well-read Voice. And this includes Tradies!

Better still get them to send an email to val.gonzalez@ fremantleherald.com, or text/call Val on 0488 237 811. 

We have a raft of ad sizes to suit all budgets, including some that beat social media ad rates hands down. And it’s so easy to arrange: just leave it to Val and her colleagues

Or, as with Britain’s Guardian News and a host of other independent news media, you can make a direct, voluntary contribution – one off or more often – to help fast track the Voice’s pandemic recovery. 

Every dollar bolsters the vital cause of the responsible journalism in The Perth Voice, a newspaper you have trusted for over 20 years. For more information, follow the QR code to perthvoice.com.

Please send contributions to Herald Reserve, BSB 086 217, Account 63-951-0124. Or mail it to PO Box 85, North Fremantle 6159.

Please send a remittance advice, email accounts@ fremantleherald.com or text 0438 933 300.

Very grateful

DEAR Chook, I have enjoyed your publication for many years though I have sometimes been tempted to offer my services as a proof-reader.

Your determination to carry on during the crippling Covid years is admirable, and I hope my small contribution will be of some assistance.

I look forward to the continued interest provided by your variety of reporting and features and wish you every success. Cathy Westerman Salisbury St, Bayswater 

Chief Chook’s comment: Thank you so much Cathy. Your considerable financial contribution – and from many readers – fills us with confidence for the future. So much so, we now have a small ‘gift’ for you. You are right: our proofing has suffered under covid-19. But now, we have Yours Truly (also the publisher and ed-in-chief) tripling up as proof-reader for all our weekly Voice and Freo Herald editions.

PERTH needs more people, Perth lord mayor Basil Zempilas says, and he’s called for an investigation into what’s keeping residents out and how to bring them in.

There could be juicy bonuses for developers in store to lure them into building in the CBD instead of on the outskirts of Perth. 

A bit over 30,000 people live in Perth council’s boundaries, while about 200,000 work there. That means after business hours the streets can be pretty desolate, and with some office workers stationed at home during the pandemic cafes and retail are struggling. 

Mr Zempilas said at the July 26 council meeting: “Residential population growth is going to be one of the cornerstones of building our liveable, sustainable and prosperous city.

“More people living in the city is going to bring life to the city. People bring people in. It improves vibrancy, provides greater support for local businesses, especially at night and on the weekends.

“The City can influence residential population growth through a number of mechanisms,” he said, suggesting more social and community infrastructure, events and marketing, and incentives for developers.

“We need to tap into the residential development and property sectors to hear firsthand why they would or would not develop in the city, what the issues or impediments are that are holding some back, and what it would take to convince them to redirect their intention and resources from other areas and focus instead on our city.”

The council endorsed his plan, effectively putting a democratically elected seal of approval on a sentiment initially raised by state government-appointed commissioners back in 2019 when they set a target for 90,000 residents by 2050.

That’s still bigger than the state government target of 53,000 by 2050, and Mr Zempilas says part of the job will be to convince the state to get on board and offer its own incentives for more residential development. 

“We know more can be done and the City of Perth can’t do it all alone,” he said, but reckoned the McGowan government had sounded pretty keen on a bigger Perth population.

His motion requests the council staff come back with incentives and initiatives they could enact in time for next financial year.

by DAVID BELL

PERTH needs more people, Perth lord mayor Basil Zempilas says, and he’s called for an investigation into what’s keeping residents out and how to bring them in.

There could be juicy bonuses for developers to lure them into building in the CBD instead of on the outskirts of Perth, with Mr Zempilas foreshadowing “incentives for increased residential development”. 

A bit over 30,000 people live in Perth council’s boundaries, while about 200,000 work there (depending on how Covid-y conditions are). That means after business hours the streets can be pretty desolate on a weeknight, and with some office workers stationed at home during the pandemic daytime businesses like cafes and retail are struggling. 

Mr Zempilas said at the July 26 council meeting: “Residential population growth is going to be one of the cornerstones of building our liveable, sustainable and prosperous city.

“More people living in the city is going to bring life to the city. People bring people in. It improves vibrancy, provides greater support for local businesses, especially at night and on the weekends.

“The City can influence residential population growth through a number of mechanisms,” he said, suggesting more social and community infrastructure, events and marketing, and incentives for developers.

“We need to tap into the residential development and property sectors to hear firsthand why they would or would not develop in the city, what the issues or impediments are that are holding some back, and what it would take to convince them to redirect their intention and resources from other areas and focus instead on our city.”

The council endorsed his plan, effectively putting a democratically elected seal of approval on a sentiment that was initially raised by state government-appointed commissioners back in 2019 when they set a target for 90,000 residents by 2050.

That’s still bigger than the state government target of 53,000 by 2050, and Mr Zempilas says part of the job will be to convince the state to get on board and offer its own incentives for more residential development. 

“We know more can be done and the City of Perth can’t do it all alone,” he said, but reckoned the McGowan government had sounded pretty keen on a bigger Perth population.

His motion requests the council staff come back with incentives and initiatives they could enact in time for next financial year.

by DAVID BELL

LONG-EMPTY social housing in East Perth has been refurbished and reopened, with seven Federation-era cottages in the Parry Street heritage precinct getting $3 million in conservation works.

Some have been empty for more than seven years (“Running on empty,” Voice, July 21, 2018). 

Locals were tired of seeing the old places vacant and crumbling while homeless people slept in nearby Weld Square park, or on the porches of the empty homes. 

Housing minister John Carey acknowledged they’d been empty a long while (some during the previous government’s term), but said it took time to carry out assessments and prioritise refurbishments to get as much social housing stock back onto the market as possible, and the repairs were pretty extensive.

“Often people think with refurbishing social housing, it’s a lick of paint. It’s not,” Mr Carey said. “There can be serious damage, and when we’re talking about refurbishment costs, it can be very expensive.”

“It is always a difficult challenge, considering heritage properties, because I’m trying to get as much social housing back into the system, and it becomes a question of opportunity cost,” refurbishing the old or building new.

“It takes time to make that assessment … in this case the assessment was ‘these are a great location, they’re heritage properties, and could still be used for social housing’.

Their location near public transport, health and support services made them especially fitting.

The homes aren’t individually heritage listed but they’re in the Parry Street heritage precinct on the state register, marking an area that sprang up on the city’s fringes after the 1890’s goldrush.

The cottages needed various structural works, reinstatement of missing brickwork, termite removal, new electrics, and new kitchen, bathroom and laundry fit outs. Then the lick of paint.

IN this week’s story of olde from Vincent’s Local History Centre historians, we have the tale of Leederville Oval from its early days as a wetland through to hosting women’s sports while the men were away at war, and the big ambitions to host high level plays in the 1960s and today. 

FEW footy grounds can boast as diverse a history as Leederville Oval. 

A former wetland, the oval at 246 Vincent Street was made a recreation reserve in 1900 and began its long association with football when it was officially opened as home of the West Perth Football Club in 1915.

Over the years, a range of sporting groups have used Leederville Oval. 

Long before the WA Women’s Football League was established in the 1980s, Leederville hosted women’s football matches. Women’s football was first played in Perth in 1915 as a wartime fundraiser.

The games continued into the 1920s, although it was considered a novelty with female competitors described in newspapers of the day as ‘athletic damsels’ and ‘belles on the ball’.

The teams included female staff from popular Perth department stores Boans and Foy & Gibson (pictured) playing Maylands-Norwood at Leederville Oval in November 1921.

Athletics, cricket, tennis, baseball, lacrosse, softball and cycling were also played on Leederville Oval in the 1920s and 1930s.

The grounds were used for open air pictures, fire brigade games and military parades and demonstrations. 

In 1933, Leederville Oval was even the venue for a military and naval tattoo that included a mock battle complete with horses and chariots. 

During actual wartime, Leederville Oval was the venue for various war fundraising and recruitment efforts.

After the war, Dick Fletcher – who served as West Perth Football Club president from 1946 to 1962 – had a grand vision for Leederville Oval as a major athletic and football stadium. 

In the late 1950s, when Perth was considering where to build facilities for the Seventh British Empire and Commonwealth Games, Dick Fletcher argued that Leederville Oval and the surrounding grounds were the perfect spot for an athletics stadium. After the games, he envisioned the stadium could become the main venue for WA football.

“…Leederville Oval, already the site of an Australian athletic championships, could be made a show place … with the type of development that could be made for the Games, Leederville Oval could accommodate 100,000 people. The whole area would then become a vast sporting centre. The decision to build the Games swimming pool in Beatty Park puts it only a few yards from Leederville Oval. The basketball stadium will also be very close … The games village could still be constructed at Floreat Park with special buses for the athletes having easy access to Leederville, as they would already be doing for the swimmers and basketballers … If Leederville Oval became league headquarters, the Perth City Council could be sure of handsome returns from the ground. I shudder to think what their revenue will be from Reabold Hill.” (Daily News, 27 November 1959).

Dick’s big dream for Leederville Oval never came to pass. 

Nearby Beatty Park was built to host the swimming and diving events for the seventh British and Commonwealth Games in 1962, and Perry Lakes in Floreat Park was the site chosen for the athletics stadium.

Leederville Oval was upgraded for use as an auxiliary venue with a new grandstand erected and named the RP Fletcher Stand in honour of Dick Fletcher.

Leederville Oval continued to be the home ground for the ‘mighty Falcons’ until 1993, when they played their last game in Leederville to a crowd of 20,000 before moving to Joondalup.

Shortly after, staff from the newly formed Vincent council worked temporarily from the Leederville Oval grandstand while the council’s administration offices were built nearby. 

A decade later, Leederville Oval went on to become the home ground for the East Perth and Subiaco football clubs. The City of Vincent is currently working with the clubs to ensure the oval continues to host football for generations to come, and has recently expressed interest in hosting the WAFL Grand Final at Leederville Oval in 2022.