Perth Voice Interactive

THE Mt Lawley Society has raised the alarm over plans to strip guidelines designed to protect Beaufort Street’s character from the city’s planning scheme.

Stirling council is currently reviewing the scheme, and under a WA Planning Commission mantra of standardisation and simplification, proposes to reduce the number of local development plans from 38 down to just seven; Beaufort isn’t among those to survive the cut.

That’s got Society president Phil Matson and his members concerned.

“The Beaufort Street Local Development Plan was designed to reduce planning uncertainty in this long corridor, and everyone really welcomed its guidance to development, because it wasn’t blocking development,” Mr Matson told the Voice.

“It was an award-winning document that was popular with the City of Stirling, property owners and local businesses.

“It’s goal was that ‘Beaufort Street will be vibrant while protecting the integrity of adjacent neighbourhoods by ensuring that… built form outcomes of individual developments are consistent with the surroundings and preserve Beaufort Street’s distinctiveness and special sense of place’.

“It has been successful.”

Mr Matson said the City had been up-front about the changes it proposed and engaged appropriately with the Society and the community, but they still fear the changes could see the end of height limits along Beaufort, while opening up side streets for unsympathetic development.

“…the City of Stirling website confirms that the local centre at 24 Coode Street (the old Coode St cafe), Mt Lawley, in a residential area, will be able to have up to three to six storeys,” Mr Matson said.

While the City’s consultation papers say “the heritage protection of the area will be retained under the draft LPS4, Mr Matson said the Society hadn’t been able to get specific details on how that would be achieved.

“The City has said ‘we will be doing this while we are progressing with LPS4’, but that leaves a gross uncertainty we would like to see addressed,” he said.

The Society has printed 10,000 flyers alerting residents to its concerns, and volunteers are pounding the streets getting them into letterboxes.

“The Society has produced a campaign flyer and website (mls.org.au) urging all City of Stirling residents and businesses to lodge an objection to LPS4 and push for retention of the Beaufort Street Local Development Plan during the public consultation period which closes on January 24, 2025,” Mr Matson said.

The City of Stirling told the Voice via a media response that changes to WA’s planning system over recent year meant a simplified framework could achieve the same outcomes as the local development plans.

Engagements

“The City has, in its various engagements with the Mt Lawley Society on this issue, explained that heritage protection will not change when the new local planning scheme comes into effect,” the response said.

“Existing local planning policies aim to make sure the heritage character is retained, protected and reflected in new development – and this will not change.

“The City’s existing local planning framework will remain in place until the time that LPS4 is gazetted. 

“There will not be a ‘window’ without heritage character protections.”

The City said while removing the local development plans wasn’t a directive of the WAPC, it was in line with efforts to remove unnecessary layers of regulation and complexity – a position it supported.

“There is a significant process that must be completed before LPS4 is approved by the minister and gazetted. “A report must be considered by City of Stirling council, submissions must be considered by the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage, and the WA Planning Commission must provide a recommendation to the minister.

by STEVE GRANT

NOT-FOR-PROFITS and councils are being encouraged to put in a submission for up to $20,000 in funding from the federal government.

Applications for the Stronger Communities Programme round 9 funding have now opened, with grants between $2500 and $20,000 available for improving local infrastructure or purchasing essential equipment that helps increase community participation.

The program has been restructured, meaning applicants now have to demonstrate a project’s contribution to tourism, First Nations people, veterans, recent migrants, greenhouse gas abatement, improved public access for people with disabilities, addressing gender inequity in public infrastructure or sport, students, medical services, or better electronic communications.

Applicants have to lodge their expressions of interest for a project up to $50,000 online by February 17, with a link available on Fremantle Labor MP Josh Wilson’s website, and a community panel will assess submissions.

“Eight previous rounds of this grant have delivered almost $1.2 million for 109 projects across East Fremantle, Cockburn, and Fremantle — including the provision of equipment for arts, seniors, youth, environmental, and sporting organisations, and a variety of upgrades to a wide range of community facilities,” Mr Wilson said.

“I encourage community groups to put forward proposals that will make our community an even better place to live.”

A GROUP of doctors concerned about WA’s response to the environmental and health implications of climate change are holding a meet-the-candidate evening leading up to the March state election.

GP Tim Leahy is a member of Doctors for the Environment Australia and said the evening would give locals the opportunity to ask candidates the “big questions” as well as drilling down to local issues such as tree canopy coverage in their electorate.

“We are hoping the candidates will be able to provide a statement on the environment, climate and health, but we are non-partisan,” Dr Leahy said.

Gas industry

He expects WA’s gas industry will be a hot topic given moves to create an expanded LNG hub on the Burrup Peninsula and applications to frack in the Kimberley, but Labor’s Mt Lawley candidate Frank Paolino has indicated he won’t be attending and will instead provide written answers to questions from DFEA.

Dr Leahy said along with climate experts, his colleagues were hoping to see decarbonising ramping up in WA rather than an expanded gas industry, and says the state is also falling behind in measures that could reduce bills for the average householder while helping the environment and improving their health.

“There are people with housing stress, and cost-of-living issues, and we see other states with incentives to go electric, and we don’t see it here.

“People don’t realise that gas use is bad for health outcomes, such as increased rates of asthma.

“Deaths from gas, coal and oil exceed deaths from smoking,” he said, adding that was a global measure that took into account pollution, more frequent storms, heat stress and other effects of a warming climate.

“New housing should be built to better standards, so they should be insulated and electrified.”

Dr Leahy said it was an interest in ADHD and the struggle families can have getting a diagnosis and treatment for their children that sparked his interest in stepping out of the surgery and into activism.

Reflecting

“Then someone asked me to help out with some climate stuff, and as I was reflecting and reading more, I started thinking about my responsibility as a parent with two teenage boys.

“I started to think that what is being passed on is degraded; second-hand with a lot of debt.

“There is a concern in WA that we are captured by the fossil fuel industry and I would like our politicians to feel captured by the concerns of the kids and their future.”

The meet-the-candidate evening is being held on Thursday January 30 at the Inglewood Hotel from 6.30-8pm, with veteran news anchor Peter Kennedy MC. Tickets are free, but the venue has limited seating, so book ahead through Humanitix.

by STEVE GRANT

NOTRE Dame University law and arts student Genevieve Phillips has been awarded its 2025 New Colombo Plan scholarship. 

The scholarship will allow Ms Phillips to spend a year studying at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji and a semester studying at the National University of Samoa. She will also complete internships in both countries. 

Her passion for learning more about the life, history and native cultures of the Indo-Pacific was sparked by a Notre Dame immersion experience in Cambodia last year. 

After spending time with her Cambodian peers learning about their different cultures, she realised her perspective on the way of life in Cambodia had completely changed. 

Ms Phillips said the trip helped her appreciate the value of immersing herself in other cultures. 

“It was through this experience that I became fully aware of how valuable the New Colombo Plan Scholarship Program is in educating students in a unique and positive way by fully immersing them in cultures which are often misrepresented or misunderstood.” 

The New Colombo Plan is an Australian Government initiative that aims to lift knowledge of the Indo-Pacific by supporting undergraduate students to undertake study, language training and internships in the region. 

Genevieve said she hoped to make lifelong personal connections with the people of Fiji and Samoa and to build long-term relationships with organisations that have links with Australia. 

“I hope to aid in their education of the Indo-Pacific, looking past the tourism sector and deeper into what each country has to offer on a personal and global scale,” she said. 

“I realised what I could get out of going on these trips and it gave me such a massive sense of fulfilment that I thought, ‘this is what I want to do’,” she said. 

Pilgrimage

Ms Phillips recently spent two weeks in Rome as part of a Notre Dame pilgrimage elective, visiting churches and other significant religious sites, attended a mass led by Pope Francis at the Vatican and had dinner with Australia’s new Cardinal, Mykola Bychok. 

“I want to thank Notre Dame for giving me these sensational, life-changing opportunities, one after another, and for allowing me to study overseas, as well as thank my references Karen McCluskey and Nigel Edwards,” she said. 

Outside university, Ms Phillips has been the leader of the second violins with BlueScope Youth Orchestra for several years. She is a mentor for her high school St Mary’s Star of the Sea and has been a youth mentor for upcoming musicians in Greece, Bali and New Zealand.

FREMANTLE will play host to an Aboriginal film festival over the Australia Day weekend, addressing Australia’s painful history of colonisation and the resilience of First Nations people dealing with its consequences.

Hosted as part of the City of Fremantle’s Truth Telling Program, the event will feature a series of First Nations films and documentaries over two days. 

Films include Dhakiyarr Vs The King, Whispering in Our Hearts, Wee War, and The Skin of Others, and music from the Kiwirrkurra Band will also be featured. 

Notable director Tom Murray, who directed Dhakiyarr Vs the King and The Skin of Others, will be speaking as part of a panel hosted by Ron Bradfield Jnr. 

As a non-Indigenous Australian, Mr Murray says film and documentary are an “immediate media” with which to “address the truth deficit” of Australian history and its ramifications. 

“My personal view is that the challenge of truth telling in Australian history is one that requires as many people as possible to put their shoulder to the wheel of understanding and appreciation [of First Nations culture and colonisation],” Mr Murray said. 

“The predominant view that was expressed [to non-Indigenous Australians] was that Australia was peacefully settled, when it wasn’t…the ramifications of those myths and factual inaccuracies have bene further devastating to Aboriginal people as they seek to live in a new Australia.” 

“As a white fella, I feel that it’s part of my duty as a person interested in history, and as a person who has spent a lot of time researching, to do my part to address the fundamental mistruths of Australian historical storytelling.” 

 City of Fremantle senior Aboriginal engagement officer Brendan Moore says Focus will be an opportunity to for non-Aboriginal people to understand why January 26 is a “hurtful” date to celebrate Australia, and to learn about some of the negative effects of the colonisation that began on that date. 

“When Australia 26 was chosen to celebrate Australia, it excluded how Aboriginal people feel about it, because many of us view it as Invasion Day, because that’s exactly what it was,” Mr Moore said. 

“It creates a really hard time in the psyche of Aboriginal people, because if you dwell on it, it can feel as if we don’t really matter in this country.” 

Mr Moore says Focus, and the City’s refusal to celebrate Australia Day, is “not about blaming” non-Indigenous people for the pain and suffering of Aboriginal people after European colonisation. 

“We don’t want non-Aboriginal people to feel threatened or shamed,” he said. 

“People are busy, and one of the best ways to engage people is entertain them and at the same time provide [the truth] about Australia’s true history. 

“You don’t necessarily want to be sitting down to a lecture, and watching a documentary or film is a good way for people to come and relax and enjoy the films while learning relevant facts about the history of the country that they live in.” 

Focus will be held over the Australia Day long weekend, January 25 and 26 at the Fremantle Arts Centre. 

Tickets are free. For more info see the Fremantle Arts Centre website.

by KATHERINE KRAAYVANGER

FREMANTLE-based chef Will Meyrick will be exploring the history and culture of north east India in his new SBS Food show, Street Food Nomad – Kolkata. 

Mr Meyrick, who owns Northbridge restaurant Will St, splits his time between Fremantle and Bali where he also heads up several locations including Sarong, Mama San, Hujan Locale, and Billy Ho. 

Filmed in Kolkata in 2019, the show was originally documented as part of Mr Meyrick’s research for his restaurants, to “investigate” and study the complexities of Indian cuisine through “journalistic” videography and photography. 

In 2020, however, Mr Meyrick found himself stuck in WA thanks to the pandemic, and a series of “right place, right time” events saw him begin to work with local production company, Mago Films, and Streetfood Nomad Kolkata was born. 

“Because we couldn’t leave, we just started to film all of the [cooking components] of the show, and then used the footage we shot in Kolkata,” Mr Meyrick said. 

“We managed to pull it all together and make a show out of it… it’s great to see it all eventuate now.” 

The show itself weaves together footage from “the alleyways of Kolkata”, as well as recipes fine-tuned by Mr Meyrick which were filmed in his Fremantle kitchen. 

French  influences

Throughout the show’s six episodes, Mr Meyrick explores history’s impact on Kolkata’s street food culture, including Arabic, Persian, Mongolian, British, and French influences – all of which are representative of Kolkata’s history, demographics, and geography.  

“There’s even a Jewish quarter in the depths of Kolkata where they’ll do lots of Jewish biscuits and desserts,” Mr Meyrick explained. 

“There’s also a big Chinese influence, where they’ll have dumplings and noodles and momos that you’d never expect to have, which was carried through Nepal and Tibet through into the bigger cities.” 

The food industry has “slightly lost touch” with the cuisines they cook with, according to Mr Meyrick, which is why he says it’s so important to document the true origins of their ingredients and food. 

“There’s an awareness about where food has come from, but not many people look at the history of the food they are cooking,” he said. 

“Without that history we don’t have a trace of where we’ve come from, and where our food culture has come from, and why certain food has worked for certain places through religion, war, and migration of people. 

“If you don’t understand the history, then you don’t understand the ingredients.” 

Back in Fremantle, Mr Meyrick created an array of recipes based on conversations with people in Kolkata’s streets, including curries, chaat, and noodles, to name a few. 

“The recipes that we developed are traditional, but 99 per cent of them are all actually directly off the street, with the old men and women that I worked with,” Mr Meyrick said. 

“Sometimes they won’t tell you the recipe, they’ll only tell you half, so we had to work back and look at old cookbooks as well as history books to work out what actually makes sense.

“That’s where the history and understanding of what you’re cooking with is so important.”

A national Australian show is a long time coming for Mr Meyrick, who has appeared on several Indonesian cooking shows and international Discovery Channel broadcasts including Top Chef.

“It’s so nice to do something back in Australia,” Mr Meyrick said. 

“Especially because we have Will St over here, so it all ties hand in hand…I’m super psyched.” 

Street Food Nomad – Kolkata will be premiering on SBS Food Channel on January 22 at 9pm.

by KATHERINE KRAAYVANGER

‘UNDERDOG’ state Liberal contender Michelle Sutherland’s campaign signs have been vandalised.

The Mt Lawley candidate says the incident is a “frustrating” aspect of election campaigning. 

One of Cr Sutherland’s signs on Wellington Road displayed her name and picture, the face of which was cut out and thrown away. 

At least two other campaign signs on Beaufort Street were also pushed over. 

A former teacher and current Bayswater councillor, Cr Sutherland says she doesn’t know whether the vandalism was intentional, but it isn’t unexpected given the nature of election campaigning. 

Vandalising

“It could just be people vandalising for the sake of it, or because it’s the election and that’s what can happen,” Cr Sutherland said. 

“I’ve been on the council a long time, so I’m not naive enough to think that these things don’t happen, but it’s just disappointing that when we have elections that we also have this sort of vandalism.”

It’s “frustrating”, according to Cr Sutherland, who will be hoping to flip the Labor-held seat of Mount Lawley at the state election on March 8. 

“Running a campaign is multifaceted, and one of the things you have to do is get your face out there and develop name recognition, and obviously signs do that,” she said. 

“It’s a nuisance, because we’ve had to take the poster down and put a new one up, which of course takes money and time.” 

The signs have been replaced. 

Cr Sutherland will be challenging Labor candidate Frank Paolino, who is replacing Simon Millman after the latter announced his retirement from politics at the end of this term. 

Despite squaring up against a new candidate, Cr Sutherland says it’s “not really an advantage” in the first state election since Labor’s landslide win in 2021. 

“We’re coming from behind because it was a COVID election, so I’m just doing my best to get out there every day and talk to people,” Cr Sutherland said. 

“I see myself as the underdog, because we’re coming from behind so much, but obviously it’s a very unique election.”

by KATHERINE KRAAYVANGER

A BOOMERANG which has been jet-setting around the world connecting communities and promoting the Parkrun movement made a heartwarming homecoming to South Beach last weekend.

B3 was one of 10 boomerangs designed by South Beach Reserve Parkrun director Ally O’Rourke, and it’s spent over a year journeying across six countries while inspiring the runners and volunteers that have seen the recreation movement grow from a single event in a Michigan town in 2012 to now spanning 22 countries.

B3 first took flight on June 15 last year in the hands of young runner Aiobhin de Baroid at South Beach Parkrun. 

Aiobhin, along with her father Daithi and their friend  Lynn O’Driscoll, played a pivotal role in starting the South Beach event. 

Shortly after its inaugural run, B3 was sent to Kilkenny Parkrun in Ireland, where it was greeted by Aiobhin’s grandparents, who are both avid parkrunners. 

From there, B3’s adventure truly took off.

Ms O’Rourke says that over the past 18 months, B3 has traveled to Ireland, the USA, Canada, Poland, South Africa, and multiple locations across Australia. 

In each destination it was entrusted to a “boomeranger” for one week to showcase their local community and Parkrun event through photos and stories shared on the Facebook group 10 Boomerangs South Beach Parkrun Adventure.

From scenic parklands to bustling cities, B3 captured the essence of what makes each Parkrun unique while fostering connections between participants thousands of miles apart.

A self-described Parkrun enthusiast and Qantas brand ambassador, Ms O’Rourke came up with the concept of the decorated boomerangs to unite Parkrun communities worldwide through a tangible symbol of connection.

“Each boomerang tells its own story,” she said.

“It’s incredible to see how a small object can create such meaningful bonds between people who share a love for running, volunteering, and community.”

To keep track of the boomerangs’ movements, Ms O’Rourke and her team—dubbed Boomerang HQ—maintain meticulous spreadsheets and maps. 

HQ, composed of former boomerangers in the UK, also monitors the Facebook group, helps locate missing boomerangs, and ensures smooth transitions between hosts.

Over time, the boomerangs have developed their own personalities. 

B8, affectionately known as “B8rtie,” has gained a reputation as the party boomerang, while B2 is nicknamed “R2B2.” 

Now, it’s B3’s turn to return home. After visiting 22 Parkruns with 25 different boomerangers, B3 will be handed back to Aiobhin, completing the full circle.

Aiobhin says she plans to run with B3 one last time before the boomerang retires to South Beach Reserve.

The success of the travelling boomerangs has exceeded Ms O’Rourke’s expectations and she plans to compile their adventures into a book.

“This project has shown us that we’re all part of something much bigger,” Ms O’Rourke says.

“It’s a reminder that no matter where we are in the world, we’re connected by our shared love for community and movement.”

B3’s return Parkrun this Saturday will be a free event starting at 8am with registration open 15 minutes prior. 

Participants can choose to walk, jog, run, or volunteer, but Ms O’Rourke says they’ll always find a warm welcome at South Beach Parkrun—a place where no one finishes last, and everyone is part of the story.

by STEVE GRANT