A 26-year-old Bayswater man has been charged with arson over the July 29 fire at Future Bayswater’s shed on Beechboro Road South.
Police allege that at about 1.20am that morning he entered the rear yard and set fire to the shed, causing around $40,000 of damage to property that was not insured.
He was also charged over slashing tyres of cars parked on the parallel street Avenell Road.
His total charges are one count of criminal damage by fire, five counts of criminal damage or destruction of property, and one count of disorderly behaviour in a police station.
Police say the investigation is ongoing and anyone with information about the fire or who’s had their tyres slashed should call Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000.
In the days after the fire dozens of businesses and locals came forward with offers to help. FuBa chair Paul Shanahan says “the outpouring of help has been overwhelming”. They’re currently taking stock of what they need to replace and will reach out to helpers in a couple of weeks.
He praised the fieries, saying “it could have been a lot worse. It was just great that emergency services got out there and got it under control in 10 minutes”.
April and Violet test out the new indoor pool gear with Vincent mayor Emma Cole. They’re looking forward to the indoor area being reopened after having to make do with the outdoor pool during a chilly winter. Photo by David Bell
AFTER seven months’ construction a date’s been set for Beatty Park Leisure Centre’s indoor area to reopen, with major works scheduled to be done by August 22.
Vincent council has spent around $3 million on indoor renovations to replace pool tiling and the 1962 toilets, upgrade pipework and water filters, make everything wheelchair accessible, and install new kids play equipment.
Councillors were advised late last year that complete tile replacement was needed to prevent “catastrophic unplanned failure”, and the 30-year-old indoor pool filtration plant was clattering along for more than twice its expected lifespan and couldn’t filter water fast enough to meet current standards.
When upgrades started there were some concerns that the aged-but-beloved gigantic frog play sculpture in the kids’ pool would not return, but Vincent mayor Emma Cole was happy to quash them: The frog’s back with a new coat of green paint.
Works were originally scheduled to be done by July, and swim schools have had to use the heated outdoor pool in the meantime. But there’s been a couple of delays and Covid’s meant the new waterslides still haven’t arrived from Malaysia, one of the few countries that manufactures them, so they’ll be installed post-opening.
The reopening comes just as Stirling council is gearing up to refurbish the outdoor pools at Terry Tyzack Aquatic Centre, and parts of Bayswater Waves are currently closed for until December while repairs are underway.
Beatty Park Leisure Centre, built for the Commonwealth Games and later handed to Vincent council to take care of, has been an expensive asset.
There’s still more to be done once locals are consulted on what they want out of the centre.
The old outdoor grandstand remains closed in want of pricey upgrades needed to bring it up to modern safety codes, and Ms Cole says the council will keep up its advocacy campaign seeking state or federal funding.
Last month Perth council turned down a deal with the state and federal government that’d see the council pay for a pool to be installed at the WACA. The council deemed it financially unviable because pools cost so much to run and usually propped up financially by gyms and saunas, but those extras would’ve been run by the WACA.
Ms Cole wouldn’t weigh in on whether Perth councillors had made the smart financial choice, just noting gravely “pools are expensive to run”.
Marjorie Williams at Anzac Cottage on her 100th birthday.
MARJORIE WILLIAMS, the woman who helped preserve Anzac Cottage where she grew up, has died on August 4, age 100.
Ms Williams (nee Porter) was born in the cottage the community built for her father, a wounded Gallipoli veteran.
A veteran herself, Mrs Williams served as an air raid warden and was in the Australian Women’s Army Service in World War II, and lived in the cottage until 1946.
Long after the family moved out, in the 1980s Mrs Porter ensured the cottage’s future against rumoured plans of demolition by using her war widow’s pension to fund a legal case, resulting in a ruling that the cottage be vested to the state, and it was later passed to the City of Vincent.
Her daughter Anne Chapple, chair of Friends of Anzac Cottage, announced Mrs Porter’s death saying: “Her love and commitment for Anzac Cottage and all that it stands for lasted for 100 years, eight months and one day and this is the last living link with the original inhabitants of the cottage, but her legacy will live on in her generous donations to the cottage and in the lovely stories she told us.”
On January 3 Ms Williams made the trip from her Bunbury aged care home to visit the cottage for her 100th birthday.
And in the months before her death Mrs Porter was glad to see the cottage turned over to the National Trust, thanking the council for looking after it but believing the trust was best placed to preserve the place’s history.
Aunty Theresa Walley’s photo from last year’s Moorditj Bridyas (Solid Bosses) exhibition. Photo by Eva Fernández, City of Perth Cultural Collections
AUNTY THERESA WALLEY, an Aboriginal elder, author and founding member of the Perth elders advisory group guiding the city, has died aged 83.
Perth council house was lit up the colour of the Aboriginal flag this week to honour Mrs Walley and their flags were to fly at half mast on August 12, the day of her funeral.
As one of the Mooridtj Bridyas (solid bosses) on the Elders Advisory Group, Mrs Walley helped form the Yacker Danjoo Nglada Bidi (“working together our way”), an agreement committing Perth council to acknowledge past injustices, commit to partnership, listen to Aboriginal voices, and make Perth
a more welcoming and culturally safe environment for Aboriginal people.
Carrolup Mission Councillors formally endorsed it and committed to signing at their July 6 meeting, shortly before Mrs Walley died on July 27.
Mrs Walley (nee Winmar) was born in Kellerberrin and spent time in care at Carrolup Mission and St Joseph’s Orphanage.
Later in life she dedicated her time to researching her culture, passing down language, and authoring books preserving Aboriginal stories.
A BIG thank you to Reece Harley for sharing his tip on how to get Vincent infrastructure fixed (“Speedy Response,” Voice, August 5, 2021). Directly emailing the mayor and CEO, who would have thought!
The 24 hour turnaround for removing some non-offensive graffiti is very impressive. Particularly when compared to the fact that a broken and dangerous footpath on Beaufort Street was reported on July 16 and, when it was still untouched and getting worse, was once again reported on August 3. And still nothing has been done.
Or what about the report of a flooded footpath on William Street on March 1 and then again on May 30. The flooding wasn’t because of a particularly heavy downpour, just a poorly laid footpath.
It was forcing pedestrians to walk in the traffic lane, some with their backs to the traffic.
Then there’s the issue of vehicles parked on the Vincent Street verge which took seven months and a community petition to resolve even though the staff had the power to fix the problem all along.
Anyway, now we know, thanks to Reece’s kind and generous sharing of his fast-track tip.
Dudley Maier Highgate
Penny drops
RECENTLY I received the wonderful and exciting news that a friend of mine is expecting her first child.
This made the penny drop for me about how the world will be when this child is approaching the age of 30 around the year 2050.
Every year they will experience the planet getting hotter and hotter as CO2 is still being pumped into our atmosphere as we approach NetZero in 2050.
According to NASA, the earth’s CO2 levels have oscillated between 180ppm and 280ppm for 800,000 years.
This has been called the ‘safe climate zone’ in which humans and the animals and plants we know have evolved.
NASA states the current CO2 level is 417 ppm and this will keep rising until we reach NetZero emissions.
It is only after we reach NetZero that we can start dropping CO2 levels back towards that safe climate zone that allowed humans to flourish.
We need all levels of government, all businesses and all citizens to have the penny drop that we are actually in a climate emergency if we are to protect the next generation that are being born now.
Paula Samson Applecross
Thank God
GOOD to know we are in the process of discontinuing Lord Prayers in the parliament since Australia is a secular country and not all members of parliament are Christians and most importantly because according to last Census 30 per cent of us are non religious.
Next step should be to remove Christian chaplains from non-religious public schools where children could be from non-Christian parents or more likely of atheists parents as indicated by last Census.
Let’s see the results of this year’s Census.
Alex Mulla Smith St, Highgate
The Ed says: Time for Perth council to catch up? Its meetings still start with an appeal to “Almighty God”. After the city’s shenanigans over the last couple of years, no doubt his/her response would be “Oh, Jesus”.
Still waiting
IT’S great to hear the City of Vincent actioned Reece Harley’s maintenance issue (“Speedy response,” Voice Letters, August 7, 2021) so efficiently.
However, despite two phone calls to the administration, two emails directly to mayor Cole, an email to CEO McLennan and publicly commenting on the mayor’s Facebook page during the recent flooding of other local streets, I am still waiting seven months and 600mm of rain later for a stormwater drain to be unblocked.
NORTH PERTH resident MARY GRAY is an environmental scientist and long time advocate for the bush and its inhabitants. This week she tells us what we can do in our own backyards (or front yards) to fight climate change, calling on us to ditch the concrete and go bush.
ACTION on climate change is now a matter of urgency for us all.
The International Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC, has called for all countries to act to reduce emissions substantially by 2030 in order to prevent global warming above 1.5 degrees C.
At our local level the City of Vincent has declared a climate emergency.
But what can each of us householders do on our properties in our outdoor areas and gardens?
In walking around our local streets, the extensive outdoor areas of hard surfaces, with concrete paving and brick paving, is remarkable.
Excessively wide driveways and paths, and even some ‘front gardens’ totally brick paved is all too common.
If each of us removes just a few square metres of hard surface, for example a 3 x 3 metre patch, then a local native tree and some native shrubs to provide food habitat for our endangered and local wildlife can be planted.
Our endangered Carnaby’s Cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus latirostris) need more food and it is such a pleasure to see them in our gardens.
They feed on a variety of native plants and on insect larvae.
Back lanes
Many householders have back lanes where there are no power lines.
If each of us in this situation were to plant one local native tree adjacent to the back lane, the increased tree canopy and urban cooling effect would be considerable.
The additional food for native birds and insect pollinators helps care for our nature. And the additional native vegetation sequesters carbon.
The best local tree species for Carnaby’s Cockatoo include Marri (Corymbia calophylla), Jarrah
(Eucalyptus marginata), Tuart (Eucalyptus gomphocephala), and the local tree Banksias: Banksia menziesii, Banksia attenuata, Banksia prionotes. Carnaby’s also love feeding on nuts and seeds of all the Hakeas, especially the Bird Hakea Hakea orthorryncha.
Notably these species take a few years before flowering and setting seed and thus providing food. Marri grow quickly.
The photo by Margaret Owen shows a Carnaby’s in a Hakea.
There are a number of native plant nurseries that supply ‘food for wildlife’, or provide for ‘garden wilding’. Also the City of Vincent has a native plant sale for residents this Sunday August 14, 8-11am at North Perth Common.
I RECKON the Premier should focus his house hunting on Claisebrook Cove in East Perth.
The leafy enclave is perfect for a swish apartment where he could live with other MPs in a political version of Seinfeld – Seinfeld (Mark McGowan), Kramer (John Carey), Elaine (Simone McGurk) and George Costanza (David Templeman).
They could all hang out at the Cactus Kitchen, a cute little cafe on Royal Street.
The cafe is not that well known outside of East Perth, but locals rave about its coffee and brunch dishes like salmon bagels, potato rosti and brekky quesadilla.
When I arrived there on Tuesday lunchtime, I was soaked through after being caught in a nasty squall and a barrage of hailstones, so I ordered a comforting bowl of Minestrone ($10.50).
The cafe was neat and tidy with a small open kitchen behind the till, an alfresco and some cacti in a pot at the entrance.
It was on the ground floor of a serviced apartment block; a great idea which guarantees the cafe a captive market (who wants to walk a few streets in their jammies to buy a cup of Joe).
Minestrone is a great meal to make from leftover vegetables, and this version had everything but the kitchen sink in it, including sweet corn, onion, half cherry tomatoes, chunky celery, and broccoli.
It was a salutary and tasty concoction with a lovely tomato broth.
I’ve had some Minestrones which didn’t have much veg, but this was a filling and authentic number.
The doorstop of bread was very interesting – despite its thickness and chunky crust the inside was incredibly light and airy, almost like a crumpet.
It was perfect for dunking into the soup and delicious on its own with the accompanying butter.
My cappuccino ($4) was nice and creamy and piping hot.
There was some classical Indian music playing in the background as I ate my lunch, and the friendly lady behind the till was chatting away with regulars.
You could tell this was the sort of relaxed place you would come to work on your laptop, have a small business confab, or just to read the papers with a brew.
I’ve been to the Cactus Kitchen a few times and enjoyed their brekky quesadilla (bacon or chicken), house-made potato rosti and eggs benny.
They also bake fresh cakes, tarts and muffins, and do a really nice sausage roll, as well as various daily specials.
Despite its spiky name, the Cactus Kitchen is a friendly place for a coffee and a well-priced bite to eat.
I’m sure it would happily double as Monk’s Cafe for Mark and his motley crew.
Cactus Kitchen 60 Royal Street, East Perth facebook.com/cactuskitchen.east
Unbound is a modern take on Shakespeare’s female characters like Ophelia (above).
“ALAS, poor middle-aged white male. I knew him well…”
Women take centre stage in Unbound, a reinterpretation of Shakespeare in which females are empowered and don’t take any nonsense from men.
Using dialogue cut and pasted from Shakespeare’s entire canon, Blank Space Productions have created a lively and clever work that better reflects women in the 21st century.
Creative director Bridget Le May says they initially tried to come up with a story based around archetypes in Shakespeare’s plays, but kept hitting narrative problems with weak female characters.
“We love the characters and the words, but not how disempowered even the most notable women in Shakespeare were,” Le May says.
“Take Lady Mac. She is completely driven and the stronger of the two in her partnership. She doesn’t baulk at Macbeth killing Duncan in her own house – but then goes veritably insane and then takes her own life when he continues to kill.
“This is one of Shakespeare’s most fearsome characters and even she has to enlist a man to achieve her goals and loses her mind when it doesn’t go to plan. It is Macbeth who is given the soldier’s death.”
The first act of Unbound looks at the problems faced by women in a patriarchal society with all the classic Shakespeare dialogue and tropes like love, plots for the crown and characters dropping like flies.
While act II is full of dance and colour, touching on the hopes and desires of women and “dislodging binary perceptions of sex and gender. It connects to what is unique and free in us as individuals and as a community,” Le May says.
“There is much less text but every moment finds its roots in Shakespeare’s works.”
Formed in 2016, Blank Space Productions are all about “transformation”, aiming to change and inspire society through their challenging and unorthodox works. Their 2016 debut EDGE was no-holds barred immersive theatre, and they are currently toying with the idea of creating a “live game that explores human limitations”.
But right now they are busy preparing for the opening night of Unbound at the Blue Room Theatre on August 24.
Le May is quietly confident Shakespeare would enjoy seeing his work spliced and diced for the 21st century.
“Shakespeare was so progressive for his time. A voracious artist who constantly tried new things, invented words and repurposed other people’s work,” Le May says.
“I genuinely believe if he was around today he would still be at the cutting edge of art practice. I hope he would be grateful that we are updating some of the more dated moments and moving them forward into the future with us.
“If he knew we were still performing his work even while we rile against it, I hope at the very least he would be flattered.
“And realistically, like any adaptation, he would probably love some moments and cringe at others. It is fun to speculate but you can never truly know someone from their writing.
“Writing mirrors the reader in many ways so we tend to see ourselves as much as we see the creator. “
Unbound is at the Blue Room Theatre in Northbridge from August 24 – September 4.
THE front of this home could be straight out of a swanky street in London.
Black railings contrast with white walls, pillars and a small bedroom balcony, conjuring up images of walking around Belgravia in Central London (remember those quaint times when you could go on overseas holidays).
There is plenty more to enjoy inside this three bedroom one bathroom home, situated on the border of Mt Lawley and Highgate.
I reckon it’s the perfect house for the professional couple who work in the city.
There are plenty of period features including a recessed ceiling, wooden floorboards and ceiling medallions, making it all feels very classy and a bit important.
Sometimes the kitchens in these sort of houses can be a bit dated, but this is thoroughly modern with lovely subway tiles, a deep double sink and a striking feature wall with a bold floral print.
There is plenty of room for a table chairs in here, creating an open plan kitchen/dining area.
The huge main bedroom whisks us back to London again with a recessed ceiling, carpet, plush pelmet and a small balcony with views of the city in the distance. The bedroom is so big it even has a “retreat” area in front of the balcony (perfect for relaxing with a book and a coffee).
It is a spacious bedroom and feels like a great place to unwind after a hard day in the office.
It also has a walk-in robe and the other two decent-sized bedrooms have built-in robes.
The lounge is roomy too with a lovely old-school bay window, a ceiling medallion and a clever recess with cupboards. The stylish feel is enhanced by the light floorboards and pristine white ceiling.
Parking won’t be an issue as the property includes a garage and off-street parking for a second car. The home includes ducted reverse cycle air con to the bedrooms, powder room, laundry, a front courtyard and rear pergola, gas bayonets in two living areas, a store room and is green-titled with no strata.
Situated on Harold Street, you are very close to East Perth train station, bus stops, Forrest and Jack Mark parks, and all the cafes, shops and restaurants you could ever want on Beaufort Street.
Perfect for a couple who fancy a little slice of London.
Buyers in the $700,000’s 16 Harold Street, Mt Lawley ACTON Mt Lawley 9272 2488 Carlos Lehn 0478 927 017 Paul Owen 0411 601 420
Sleeping bags mark those who died on Perth’s streets last year, with the family of the latest victim calling for more social housing stock. Photo by Cole Baxter: http://www.colebaxterphotography.com
Family of dead mother plead for immediate housing action
FIFTY SIX sleeping bags laid out on the front steps of WA’s Parliament on Tuesday laid bare the grim toll of WA’s housing crisis during an evening vigil to its latest casualty, Alana Garlett.
The sleeping bags commemorated the 56 people who died homeless last year, and advocates estimate the death toll this year will be even higher, with rumours after the vigil another person had died near Yagan Square this week.
Ms Garlett, a 38-year-old Noongar mother of six, was found unconscious behind Wesley Church in Perth CBD and lated died in hospital.
During the vigil, her family addressed the crowd and made emotional pleas for the McGowan government to urgently increase the social housing stock and get people off the street before more died.
“Please government, do what you can to house these people,” Alana’s sister, Michelle Garlett, said.
“The winters are getting colder, and the summers are getting hotter”.
Ballardong Noongar rights activist, Herbert Bropho said the over-incarceration of Indigenous people was condemning hundreds to WA’s streets, where they made up 64 per cent of the homeless population. First Nations people are incarcerated at a rate of 3,820 per 100,000 in Western Australia – the country’s highest rate.
“Stop locking people up, or this is what happens,” Mr Bropho said, gesturing towards the sleeping bags.
“The laws have got to change,” he said.
“We have no rights to this country.”
Between 2016 and 2019, WA also had the highest age-standardised rate of suicide among Indigenous people, being 34.6 deaths per 100,000 people.
National Suicide Prevention and Trauma Recovery Project director Megan Krakouer told the crowd those statistics were symptoms of a racist state system.
“We are a wealthy state… how can we not have homes?”
“Mothers have their babies ripped out of their arms because they are homeless … there’s no care, no love”.
“It’s the original sin of the coloniser.”
Several speakers expressed frustration with big government grants going to corporations who weren’t providing the solutions needed for people doing it tough.
“The money does not get to the people on the ground,” Ngalla Maya Aboriginal Corporation CEO Mervyn Eades said.
Opposition leader David Honey provided a sympathetic ear: “There seems to be a barrier that stops the money getting out of those big centres, actually to where the people live and where they need the services,” he said.
Mr Honey said WA’s public housing stock decreased by 1,134 between 2017 and 2020 under the McGowan government, but his party would aim to increase it by 35 per cent – though that didn’t come as an election promise.
Mr Honey also criticised the Labor government over the $22 million corruption scandal at the Department of Communities in 2019, with some of the public funds siphoned off by former assistant director general Paul White having come from an affordable housing initiative.
“A large amount of money was lining his pockets and funding his friends’ lifestyles … while people are dying on the streets,” Mr Honey said.
“The reason the corruption was allowed to persist was because simply it was a straight administrative incompetence that allowed it to go on.
“They don’t have the most basic controls in place to stop this sort of corruption.”
The premier’s office was still working on a response as the Voice went to the printers, but a staffer did point out the Liberal government was in power for about half the time Mr White was fiddling the books and had no clue.
Perth Voice Interactive 