Seniors enjoy a game of walking football, which has taken the world by storm since being introduced in 2011.
A 101-YEAR-OLD East Perth woman is living proof it’s never too late to play the ‘Beautiful Game’.
Pearl Williams took part in a walking football match at the Archbishop Goody Residential Care home earlier this year.
Designed for the older soccer player who finds it difficult to run about the pitch, walking football has taken the world by storm since it was introduced by Chesterfield FC in England in 2011.
By 2018 an international governing body was established to promote and coordinate matches between nations, and the first world cup was held in Manchester in 2020.
After holding several successful walking football carnivals in WA, Football West officially opened a walking football hub in 2018 and there are now about 10 clubs across the state running programs.
“Walking Football is an inclusive format of the game: equally accessible to people of all genders, ages, abilities and fitness levels,” says FW’s community program leader Melissa Gmeiner.
“It is an ideal activity for both experienced players and those people who have never played before.
“Walking Football local hubs see a range of people participating, but most being older adults of 50-plus enjoying the activity.”
Ms Gmeiner says it can also be a great social outlet for retired seniors who no longer have that daily interaction in the workplace.
“Local hubs have brought together people from different backgrounds and with varying football experience to enjoy a social game, followed by a friendly post game chat and drink,” she says.
“It encourages meeting new people, being part of a group in a team environment and develop friendships.
“Walking football see participants enjoy important social benefits of playing a team sport.”
Walking Football hubs can be found in Geraldton, Floreat, Iluka, Joondalup, Curtin University, Mandurah, Rockingham, Sorrento, Pilbara, Great Southern and Busselton. For more info on the Curtin University program go to curtinfootball.teamapp.com
The inaugural Walking Football WA State Festival is being held at Fox Football Fives in West Floreat on Saturday October 23 for the men’s over 50’s, and Sunday October 24 for the women’s and mixed competitions.
A MAYLANDSapartment for under $190,000 in a booming property market – “Tell ‘em they’re dreaming!”
Well they’re not, and this property on Kathleen Avenue is no do-it-upper either, boasting lovely finishes and an outstanding kitchen and beautiful bathroom.
Okay, it is a one bedroom one bathroom affair, but it’s immaculately presented and perfect for a first time buyer,a couple, or as an investment property for a wannabe landlord.
Or if you’re lazy and don’t like a lot of cleaning!
The light wooden floorboards and white colour scheme make it feel bigger than it actually is, and there’s ample light flooding through the windows.
The U-shaped kitchen is a real stunner with handleless cupboards and a sleek, futuristic splashback acting like a mirror to create the feeling of extra space.
There are plenty of cupboards and it has got a practical but stylish deep sink.
The bathroom is just as nice with stunning marble-looktiles and a vanity that wouldn’t look out of place in a high-class restaurant or luxury apartment. A lovely finish. Surprisingly for a compact apartment, the bedroom has a built-in wardrobe which is cleverly designed and its U-shape skirts a large window.
Situated on the ground floor, there’s even a decent-sized private courtyard with enough room for a table and chairs and a thin nature strip.
It would be a lovely spot to have a beer at half time during the grand final, or maybe a stiffer drink if your team are getting thumped.
Situated on Kathleen Avenue, this property is a short walk from all the cafes, pubs and restaurants on Eighth Avenue and Guildford Road, including the new microbrewery The Seasonal Brewing Company.
You are also very close to the river foreshore and several reserves, parks and the Maylands Peninsula golf course.
The home includes a parking bay, but there is plenty of public transport options nearby and it’s a short hop on the bus into the CBD.
This is a very stylish one bedroom apartment and I’m sure it will be snapped up.
A CURATION of Maylands locals’ photos will be displayed in WA’s Parliament House, showcasing the electorate’s shores, humans and animals.
Maylands MP Lisa Baker put the call out for local photographers to help populate a digital frame in parliament house.
“I wanted to showcase the people and places of Maylands, Bayswater, Embleton, Inglewood, Bedford and Morley,” she says. “The sport, the food, the art, the unfortunate bridges!
“From an eerie shot of the historic Maylands brickworks to the Bedford barber shop on Beaufort Street, to a playful pooch enjoying the river in Bayswater – these are the images of the Maylands electorate.”
Sharon Morskate’s dynamic photo of her springloaded pooch Bayley was one of the 10 chosen for the project.
She says: “My dogs love living by the river. They are rescue dogs and he’s the most jumpiest dog I’ve ever had. I always say they’ve gone from zero to hero. They are quite Facebook famous already.
“We love walking around the river and under the Redcliff bridge each day where this photo was taken at Claughton Reserve. When I first moved here it was a little known location … now it’s been done up beautifully and it has the famous turtle toilet there and they’ve made a lovely fairy playground and a boat ramp and a jetty.
“It really is such a lovely secret location so close to home for me and my dogs.”
Pam Hunt’s photo of birds crowding a bridge was also chosen.
“The birds on the jetty are little black cormorants,” she says. “ I see them once or twice a year, normally in winter flying in great flocks down the river and occasionally they rest as they are there on the jetty. I believe they are chasing food, probably shoals of fish. It’s quite an awesome sight.”
Ms Baker reckons the abundance of river shots shows a lot of her locals care for the environment.
Ombudsman complaint: Roundabouts ‘assured’ a month before consultation
AN email included in a complaint lodged with WA’s ombudsman suggests Vincent council pre-determined the installation of controversial mini roundabouts in North Perth before consulting ratepayers.
The roundabouts have been criticised by some locals as only benefiting cars at the expense of pedestrian and cyclist safety (“A little risky,” Voice, March 27, 2021).
Those critics are now pointing fingers at the council saying a report to elected members over-stated support for the trial roundabouts.
The report claimed supporters and opponents were evenly mixed; 30 for, 30 against and 13 unsure. But when resident Geraldine Box did her own count, she came up with 27 for, 40 against and 6 unsure. The Voice’s own count came up similar; 26 for, 38 against and 9 unsure.
The council installed nine mini roundabouts at the urging of Main Roads which was funding the 12-month experiment.
Resident Andrew Main lodged a complaint with the WA ombudsman, citing an email from Main Roads to Vincent council back in March – a month before the consultation – which makes the roundabouts sound like a done deal.
Main Road’s mildly bossy missive to Vincent states: “It is of concern that as a result of the delay to the consultation process the opportunity to report to your March 23 council meeting has been missed and therefore this will now add a month delay to the project; as now the earliest you are able to report to council is to the meeting of April 28, 2021.
“I note that Craig gave the assurance that the works will still be delivered by end June 2021.”
“Jerko Ostoic, (director road access and planning at Main Roads), has expressed his deep concern that the consultation process has been delayed and that the city may now not meet its ability to deliver the scheme.”
No matter what Mr Main wrote in his complaint the email was
“evidence that strongly suggests there was an agreement between officers of the City of Vincent and Main Roads for the initiative to be implemented by June 2021 – no matter what”.
The ombudsman declined to investigate because Mr Main lives too far from the roundabouts.
Vincent CEO David MacLennan told the Voice: “the city never guaranteed to Main Roads that this project would go ahead,” only that it would be proposed to council for a vote after the consultation.
“The consultation was genuine. The results were not fudged,” he says.
“The public consultation produced a mixed result for and against the trial which was expected as this was a new traffic intervention for Vincent. But the feedback from our community on road safety is unambiguous.
“Our residents want to reduce car speeds and rat running on our residential streets, particularly in North Perth where several intersections have had severe crashes.
“Road safety is not a popularity contest. It is about reducing the risk of being killed or seriously injured on the road.
“There was a strong case to proceed with the 12-month trial in partnership with Main Roads despite some of the concerns raised during the public consultation process.
“We will review the results at the end of the trial period but so far we have received very positive feedback from residents.”
Mr MacLennan said he would review the consultation results and was willing to meet with concerned residents to go over how each was categorised.
He added there was no single traffic project Vincent staff were so wedded to that they’d fudge numbers.
“It’s more important to keep peoples’ faith in the consultation process,” he said. “I’d consider any fudging of numbers to be misconduct.”
FORMER Stirling councillor Paul Collins wants to reverse a “ludicrous” decision that lets council staff approve non-compliant developments over the objections of neighbours.
Until last year any development outside the usual planning rules which attracted an objection had to go before council rather than being rubber stamped by staff.
It’s a common clause at many councils, but at their June 2020 meeting Stirling councillors voted 8-7 to give staff more discretion; they only have to send developments which have “undue adverse impact on the local amenity” to council for a decision.
Mr Collins says back-to-back houses, built to the boundaries and with no backyards, can now be approved by staff even if locals object.
“It’s a ‘we do not want to hear from you’ attitude from council,” Mr Collins says.
He’s nominated for Lawley ward at October’s election and wants to reverse the rule.
The new system was moved by councillor Sue Caddy who said the change would tidy up the rules and still keep the clause where a minimum of two councillors could “call in” an approval for a council vote if locals complained on planning grounds.
“It doesn’t actually strip away any of council’s power to bring items to council for determination if there is something where we can exercise our discretion,” Cr Caddy said last June.
Councillors David Boothman, Joe Ferrante, Suzanne Migdale, Stephanie Proud, Keith Sargent, Bianca Sandri and mayor Mark Irwin agreed. Opposed were councillors Felicity Farrelly, Chris Hatton, David Lagan, Karlo Perkov, Elizabeth Re, Adam Spagnolo and Lisa Thornton.
Cr Re said councillors weren’t being swamped by planning applications.
“It concerns me when I listen to people say that this is the biggest council in WA, [and] we have a planning committee meeting and we have one item,” Cr Re said.
“We have delegated so much over the years I’ve been here. It worries me every year that we have no idea what’s going on, sometimes we actually have to read it in the media to find out what’s going on…. I don’t believe we need to delegate so much authority.”
Mr Collins said allowing councillors bring an item before council wasn’t enough, noting that Balga, Mount Lawley and Coastal ratepayers were represented by supporters of the new system and might face an uphill battle getting an application referred to council.
He said residents shouldn’t have to ask “pretty please” and hope two councillors agree to call in a full vote.
“If elected, I will move a motion to reverse this ludicrous 2020 decision,” he said.
Another candidate has also opposed this system, with Simon Wheeler running in Coastal ward. He first picked up on the decision last year, speaking against it at the June meeting and writing on his Stirling Community Matters blog that council had handed over “the last vestige of any input in planning control to an unelected administration”.
Mr Wheeler says one of his primary goals if elected is to review delegated authority on all matters affecting the community.
A BIG binar is visiting WA Museum Boola Bardip for the school holidays, collecting messages for future space trips inside a giant version of the tiny vessel.
A Binar is a little cube satellite just 10cm tall, designed, built and coded at Curtin uni. The first, Binar-1, was equipped with two cameras and launched on August 28 on one of the regular ISS resupply missions. With two more launches planned in 2022, the plan is to form an array to provide high-res magnetometry of the moon’s precious resources.
The Binar are named after the Noongar word for fireball, which they’ll resemble when they fall back through the atmosphere, and the name is also a nod to Curtin’s Desert Fireball network who search for meteorites.
SIXTEEN candidates are vying for four vacant seats on Perth council, with voters forced to the ballot box for the second time in just a year to get back into the regular election cycle.
All four incumbents with a shortened one-year term obviously had enough fun to run again. Lord mayor Basil Zempilas still has three years to go before facing a vote, as do top-scoring 2020 winners Sandy Anghie, Di Bain, Catherine Lezer and Rebecca Gordon.
Daniel Ortlepp is an East Perth resident and political staffer who’s worked for Labor’s Anne Aly. He’s keen on addressing the homelessness crisis and cutting the council’s climate impact, wanting the city to get carbon neutral by 2025 and the community output to hit net zero by 2035.
Jeff Broun brings some grassroots credentials as a former chair of the East Perth Community Safety Group. A chartered accountant, he wants to put his finance nous to use on the annual budgets “to avoid unexpected surprises leading to major rate hikes”.
Clyde Bevan was elected in 2020 and is asking for a full term, saying they’ve so far opened two shelters but have more work to do to address homelessness and city safety.
Steve Hasluck is the only councillor from the pre-2020 era to return to stand, having been ruled ineligible due to a fine print technicality at the last election. He wants to tackle the rows of vacant retail tenancies and the homelessness situation.
Kylee Veskovich is a long time city worker in education and arts, and previously ran in the 2021 state election for the Liberals in Perth. Homelessness, violence and antisocial behaviour, and the high commercial vacancy rate are her key issues to make the city safer and bustling.
Michelle Rosenberg lives in the city and manages a family bar and restaurant and says “the city still isn’t what it could be, with high commercial vacancies, it is sad to see so much closed on a Sunday. Planning needs to be considered, so that residents aren’t as impacted by commercial noise and commercial businesses can conduct their business. Landlords, business owners and residents should all be engaging together.”
Andrew Toulalan is a past candidate and asks voters:
“Do you think the incumbent councillors have done enough? Are you wondering what they’ve actually achieved? Have you noticed any real differences in your neighbourhood?”. He works in tourism and says he knows first hand what visitors and residents want out of a city.
Deni Symonds is another returning past candidate, prompted in part to run by hearing about three billion native animals killed in bushfires while the council made no changes to its “weak” environmental strategy. He’s also fed up with “the despicable things said about the trans and homeless community” and “will continue to be vocally against such comments”.
Jackie Mckay is a newcomer to the race, a long term resident who wants the basics taken care of like “deteriorated streetscapes, broken and dirty pathways, [and] dimly lit streets and parks” along with increased homelessness and less city visitors.
Viktor Ko is a medical doctor who’s already on council and seeking a full term. He says pieces are in place for the city’s pandemic recovery and now “we should foster our international ties and support the ultimate renewable industry: art/music/culture”.
Raj Doshi also ran in 2020 and is up for a second try. She’s a city worker and volunteer and helped organise the city music sessions during the first lockdowns.
Liam Gobbert is an incumbent hoping for a full term off the back of his focus on local issues, and his experience as former deputy mayor of Joondalup.
Brent Fleeton is another winner from 2020 who’s hopeful to return, saying he’s brought a high level of transparency as chair of the audit and risk committee. He’s submitted Kirkup-esque numbers of enquiries on behalf of residents and ratepayers, totalling 243 so far.
Bruce Reynolds is a city businessman who tried for mayor last time round and is aiming for council in 2021, with experience in marketing, design, realty, hospitality and the not-for-profit sector.
Cath Hewitt knows the organisation from the inside having worked for Perth council for five years as a manager, and says “loss of corporate knowledge by the high turnover… is a major concern” and notes “a lack of clear process and organisation wastes much time and energy”.
Gloria Zhang briefly campaigned alongside lord mayor Basil Zempilas at the 2020 election before her candidacy was barred due to her name not being on the lease of a city property. She’s back now and wants to put her project management experience to use rebuilding the economy and advocating for inter-community dialogues.
Vincent candidates
IT’S a big field in both of Vincent’s wards with a mix of familiar contenders and new faces. There are three vacancies in North Ward as councillor Sally Smith is retiring two years into
a four-year term, and two vacancies in South Ward. One of the long term South Ward councillors, Joshua Topelberg, is calling it a day after 12 years and hasn’t re-nominated.
NORTH WARD
Joanne Fotakis, elected 2017, is aiming to return, looking for more inclusive decision-making (especially with developments) and she notes she’s been a strong voice for sustainability motions like the incoming FOGO three bin system, more parks, and the zero-emissions by 2030 plan.
Adina Lieblich is back after running at the last election in a strong showing that was just a few per cent off a seat. An engineering project manager, she wants to prioritise maintenance “over new projects we don’t need”, bring in recycled materials to city construction, involve residents earlier in decisions, and stop privatisation of public spaces.
Suzanne Worner is GM of Revelation Perth International Film Festival and works at UpBeat Events, working on many festivities in Vincent over the years. She previously worked in media at the ABC and says “I value good communication, integrity and transparency”.
Bonnie Knott works locally while studying law and social justice, is in a bunch of community groups, and often seen out with her dog Teddie in local parks and cafes. She wants a diverse and inclusive community.
Ron Alexander is a former footballer who was CEO of the WA sport and recreation department for 18 years. Politically unaligned, his focus is on safety, noise, parking, seniors, childcare, recreation, arts, and maintaining flora and fauna in parks, having previously led a delegation of residents requesting council return Hyde Park’s greenery after recent gravel incursion.
Alex Castle was elected 2017 and is back for another run. She has a legal background, is a small business owner and she says she’s worked to improve greening and safety in neighbourhoods, investment in town centres, parks and sports facilities.
SOUTH WARD
Jonathan Hallett, councillor since 2017, is a public health academic and Greens Party member and is making a
tilt to return on the back of his motions reducing single use plastics, starting up the workforce gender equity reporting, and his public health initiatives.
Ben Swanson says he was motivated to run out of his respect for hardworking families, business owners and community organisers, and says he’ll “instil financial discipline, improve services” and look after cultural, sport and community groups.
Ross Ioppolo has a background in finance and wants the council to better represent resident voices, after his experiences with the current system saw months of delay as he tried to get a simple traffic safety matter fixed (Voice, September 4, 2021).
Amanda Madden has a background in academics and business, has lived in the area with her family for 25 years, wants sustainable and efficient growth, and previously ran for the Liberal party in the 2017 state election for the Maylands seat.
Trent Durward works in planning and development, Leederville local, and former chair of Leederville Connect, and is keen on more green spaces, sensible design, activated laneways, and looking after town centres.
Joshua O’Keefe ran at the last election and is giving it another go. With 15 years’ experience on the staff side of local government (including at Vincent), he wants to see more events to generate economic growth and has called for the return of the Beaufort Street Festival, along with the basics like more street cleaning and maintenance to attract investment and compete with other shopping strips.
Longtime Leedervillager Trent Durward. Photo by David Bell
A FORMER Leederville trader has called for more love, care, and parking spots for village centres lest they go the way of ailing Subiaco.
Trent Durward ran the kids’ toy store Henry Hiccups in Subiaco for three years before moving to Leederville in 2013 for a five-year stint.
Now gearing up for a run for Vincent council, he says: “I am acutely aware and experienced in how important our urban villages are to the vitality of our neighbourhoods.
“It was an amazing transition to Leederville, and while we have since moved on to new things, the one key message I have for the community: When you have elected members only worried about their own patch or single issues, and not the big picture, the town centres suffer.
“This is what I observed at Subiaco council in 2010, and Subiaco town centre is still suffering 11 years later.
Leederville’s had a run of new businesses open up recently, and he says “it’s coming back, but Beaufort Street is struggling: A bit of work needs to go into these village centres”, including Mount Hawthorn’s middle, the North Perth strip and William Street.
Leedy’s new shoots are partly in response to ABN Group moving hundreds of new office workers in, but Mr Durward says that has to be handled carefully too. He wants an audit of parking in the area to see how the load is affecting parking for other businesses (ABN was built on what used to be a carpark) and he’s urged the council to hurry up with long-discussed plans to build a new carpark in the area.
Life changes (and Amazon’s incursion luring people away from shopping local) saw him move on from Henry Hiccups in 2018, though he still works in the ville as a planner and developer and was chair of town team Leederville Connect until he stood down to nominate.
He says Leederville Connect’s done a lot of good for the area holding events and improving public spaces and if elected he wants town teams and community groups to be more empowered and better funded by council.
THE recent commentary in Voice mail between residents and the City of Vincent CEO shines a light on resident frustration with issue management and resolution.
The sentiment in the street is that while residents respect and appreciate that our administration is dealing with a myriad of issues, their only expectation and wish is to receive an estimated timeframe for action.
IF you thought the recent Hollywood adaptation of Cats was slightly weird, wait until you see the wacky feline critter in Unheimlich.
Featuring a house cat that acts as a mischievous guide, the audience is taken on a darkly-comic voyage through the dreams and memories of a suburban couple, touching on their subconscious fears and hopes.
The theatrical mix of visual arts and performance includes dance, music and lighting, but at the heart of the show are the big disturbing masks created by Perth artist Tarryn Gill.
She initially created the strange soft-sculptures in 2013 for the exhibition Guardians, “a cast of glittering, monstrous characters inspired by ancient funerary art, who guarded my own (hand-stitched) fragmented body in an imagined mausoleum,” Gill says.
“I started making soft sculptures using foam and my old dance school fabrics.
“These works were solemn yet humorous and had lights and speakers which uncannily animated the sculptures.
“Director Katt Osborne saw the live performance potential in these and asked me if I’d be interested in working with her to make a theatre work that was inspired by the Guardians.
“We’ve been slowly developing a way of working with our incredibly accomplished team since 2017 and Unheimlich has become a story about our inner worlds and how our relationships can act as a mirror to the parts of us we don’t always want to see.”
Gill is a bit of a Sigmund Freud buff and in 2013 was invited by Perth artist Andrew Nicholls to undertake a residency at the Freud Museum in London.
“ I was inspired by Freud’s collection of antiquities and how for him, these sculptures unearthed from the ground were analogous to the process of psychoanalysis – unearthing memories from the unconscious,” Gill says.
“Freud’s essay on the aesthetics of The Uncanny is influential and the word “unheimlich” is taken from here – it’s fitting as the show is set in a domestic space and we aim to reveal the inner worlds of our characters.
“It is uncanny in that this home space in a moment flips from homely to unhomely, familiar and safe to strange and horrific.”
Despite all the outre masks and dense imagery, at the heart of the performance is the universal theme of love between two individuals.
“Whilst Unheimlich is a very visual work which aims to evoke the unconscious, it does have a strong narrative structure that centres around a couple and their house cat in a domestic space,” Gill says. “A relationship is a mirror and to be in in a relationship is to be confronted byyourself and parts of yourself you don’t know exist.”
Unheimlich is at PICA in Northbridge from September 22 to October 2 at 7.30pm, with an extra 2pm matinee on Saturday October 2. Tix at pica.org.au/show/unheimlich
Perth Voice Interactive 