Perth Voice Interactive

IDEAS are needed for the design of the slightly-relocated Wotton Reserve skate and BMX park.

State government money is paying for Bayswater council to handle the fraught and much-debated relocation of the park to the north-western wedge of Wotton Reserve, as it has to move to make way for a Metronet station carpark on the north-eastern side. 

A split council endorsed that spot in April after examining a number alternatives, and now three companies are collaborating on the detailed design: landscapers Emerge Associates, skate specialists Skate Sculpture, and recreational trails designers Common Ground Trails who’ll figure out the BMX component. 

Bayswater mayor Dan Bull said in a statement: 

“Whether you’re a skater, BMX rider, local resident, club member or park user, the city wants to hear your thoughts on the draft design.”

So far skate advocates are adamant that the new park keeps its towering steel halfpipe, as it’s the only one in WA greater than 2.5m in height making it a magnet for skaters from far and wide.

Council staff, the contracted designers, and skate and BMX experts will be on site July 31 from 1–4pm to get some input before Emerge works on the detailed design, with a short turnaround as it’s due to go to the council for a decision in late August. 

Some of Perth’s top riders like Luke Tooze and Ryan Aquilina and skater Junior Linke will also be there for free skate, scooter and BMX sessions.

Free sessions

Ideas are also invited via online comment at engage. bayswater.wa.gov.au by August 1.

Construction’s pegged to start January 2022 with completion by mid-2022.

The state government has delayed demolition until 2022 so the park stays open for now but the carpark has been closed to make way for the first Metronet works, so skate or ride over.

By DAVID BELL

THE slow death of suburban backyard life is being sealed brick by brick, with another development proposal in Leederville decried as “heartbreaking” and marking the end of a leafy outlook, nude sunbaking, and backyard privacy.

The trio of two-storey group dwellings planned for 14 Franklin Street isn’t the biggest in the ‘burb, but neighbours say the impact will be enormous as they’re faced with an imposing two-storey brick wall and windows peering into their backyards.

Heartbreaking

Neighbour Craig Belcher attended this week’s Vincent council briefing asking councillors not to approve it, saying if it’s built he’ll have to “sit in my backyard and look at a two-storey brick fence. It breaks my heart”.

He supports some development on the site but this one’s outside planning rules on a few points so will need council discretion; it’s closer to neighbours than what’s usually allowed, and the density is above the standard R30 lot.

Although the planning report says amendments have “effectively reduced” the impact on neighbours, Mr Belcher disagreed: “Let me tell you this devastates my way of life, my wife’s way of life. She’s devastated at this,” he told the council.

“This absolutely devastates me… To use words in the report like it says, quote: ‘no significant impact’, that totally disgusts me. Surely we need to do something about this.”

Near neighbour Paul DiLanzo said the development will mark the end of four decades of enjoyment in his backyard. “I’ve lived in the street since 1981 and I don’t want people looking in my backyard. I sunbake in the nick, I swim in the pool in the nick, and now I’ve got bedroom windows that are going to look straight into my backyard.”

The project’s planner, Urbanista’s Steven DePiazzi, told the council an earlier draft plan was redesigned after proving unpopular.

“The building is actually very visually attractive now,” he said, and it “significantly contributes to the streetscape, and we also believe it doesn’t really have any undue impact on an R30 coded residential area where this type of development would be expected”.

The existing house, described as “dilapidated” in the council report, belongs to regular Voice correspondent Vincent Sammut, former owner of North Perth’s Books Etcetera. It was built around 110 to 120 years ago and Vincent council assessed its heritage value in 2006 but it was not heritage listed. 

The assessment noted it had “considerable rarity value” but that “the aesthetic value has been diminished by the fair to poor condition of the place”. 

Neighbours say they support some more modest development on the site, and Mr Belcher said “I totally support what the council’s been doing with the Leederville Masterplan”, which allows bigger developments in some parts but keeps it low-key in the more residential areas. 

Councillors decide whether to approve the trio of buildings at the July 27 meeting.

by DAVID BELL

THE NORTHBRIDGE lights sign on William Street has been switched on and is ready to be hashtagged.

It was inspired by local arts pillar Marcus Canning’s 2015 visit to California, where he spotted the popular VENICE sign at Venice Beach. When he got home and saw the two poles either side of William Street, the idea struck him.

Perth council threw in $35,000 in June last year, contributing to a million-dollar Northbridge revamp spend by Mr Canning and Adrian Fini’s company Happy Heart. It hangs beside The Rechabite which Happy Heart has relaunched as a multi-level arts hub. 

Intended to be a hotspot for social media snaps, online commenters quickly noticed Perth’s sign was a little wonky. 

Perth councils’ social media managers were kept busy explaining it had to be installed off centre because the footpath’s wider on one side of William Street so the street lights would affect visibility if they were dead in the middle. 

The $35,000 spend was authorised by the now-replaced commissioners, but mayor Basil Zempilas endorsed his predecessors’ vision.

He said in a statement: “The NORTHBRIDGE sign is a simple initiative to provide an immediate impact to the William Street precinct, assisting local businesses and making it a more vibrant, attractive and enticing place to visit and spend time in.

Positive message

“I love the idea, the positive message it sends and the iconic photo opportunity it presents for people walking along William Street.”

A note to anyone hashtagging the sign for social media: Currently instagram’s #Northbridge tag contains a fair few near-nude images as the suburb’s sex trade purveyors are using it to advertise their wares, so your photos might be wedged between the many snaps of breakfasts and bums. 

by DAVID BELL

LOCAL gardens brimming with food for bees is the goal of a new sculpture and mural in West Perth put up by WA Loves Nature. 

At the corner of Hay and Outram Street, the mural depicts plants that native bees love to feast on, and the group is encouraging people to include them in their gardens. It’s accompanied by a sculpture of blue banded bees, made by Respoke with advice from WA native bee expert Kit Prendergast to ensure they were anatomically and behaviourally accurate: Just like the real bees they gather in small groups to cling to a stem with their mandibles while resting. 

Perth federal Labor MP Patrick Gorman helped get funding for the project through the federal Communities Environment Program, saying “there’s a buzz about the new native bee mural and sculpture in West Perth, which I was proud to help unveil last weekend.

“The project, from WA Loves Nature, will educate people about the importance of native bees and was supported through my office’s Communities Environment Program.

“Supporting murals and sculptures such as these ensure 

a wider understanding of the importance of Perth’s biodiversity.”

The mural includes all the plant names and there’s detailed native bee food flyers available for collection at Gangemi’s wine shop next door. 

The best foods for bees

• jacksonia sternbergania: Sometimes called stinkwood, this pea plant doesn’t actually stink unless it’s chopped up or burned, and native bees love it (along with birds and butterflies).

• eremophila maculata: The spotted emu bush, so beloved by honeyeater birds they argue over who gets to feast from the tubular flowers.

• acacia pulchella: The prickly moses shrub, enjoyed by bees, fairy wrens, and even grey kangaroos like to graze on it.

• regelia ciliata: A myrtle shrub loved by bees and lazy gardiners because it is so low-maintenance.

• banksia menziesii: Good for the soil, also loved by honeyeaters and black cockatoos.

by DAVID BELL

INGLEWOOD’S speedy stretch of Beaufort Street is heading to 40kmh between Central Avenue and Crawford Road under a new trial.

That part of the street has been a hotspot of pedestrian safety concerns for at least a decade, trapped in time as other bits of Beaufort further south get lowered speed limits and speed-tempering design changes. 

A pedestrian crossing installed there hasn’t quite done the trick: The speed limit’s too high so locals say they often see drivers whizzing through the crossing without seeing it. 

In February 2020 Stirling council agreed on trying out a 40kmh limit for two years. Community sentiment was pretty evenly split in a consultation survey, but pedestrian safety won out over the drivers concerned about increased travel time. 

A year and a half later and the $255,000 LED signs are now up warning drivers to slow down.

The local community and traders’ group Inglewood on Beaufort welcomed the lowered speed trial, hoping it’ll make their patch more of an inviting precinct once it’s safer for pedestrians and bikes. 

The council will monitor traffic volumes, speed, accident data, pedestrian activity and they’ll take comments before deciding whether to make it permanent.

by DAVID BELL

A NEW self-guided tour developed by a group of eco-warriors is encouraging city folk to head into what’s left of WA’s unique jarrah forests to see what exactly is at stake as American mining giant Alcoa pushes ahead with the expansion of its bauxite mines.

Bauxite, which is used to produce aluminium, is generally found in shallow pools, forcing mining companies to stay on the move to maintain profitable extraction levels, particularly while a current world surplus pushes down the ore’s value.

Ghost town

Alcoa is poised to close its Huntly Mine in Dwellingup within five years and dig into a new site next door, named after the ghost town and former timber mill Holyoake. It also plans another minesite east of Jarrahdale it will call Myara North.

According to WA’s mines department Alcoa has cleared enough land to cover the City of Perth eight times over in the last decade.

The miner claims it has rehabilitated 77 per cent of the land it has cleared in Australia, but Jarrahdale Forest Protectors treasurer Diana Blacklock says “you only have to go and look” to see the forests aren’t what they once were. 

“It’s fractured,” she said, noting that bushwalkers have reported that the forest’s biodiversity hasn’t recovered.

Ms Blacklock wants Perthites to see it for themselves using JFP’s 30-kilometre self-guided Jarrahdale Forest Tour, which starts in virgin forest near the small townsite’s cemetery.

The 17 stops along the tour include sites such as the remnants of a tree-sit used by logging activists in 2010, Serpentine Dam, the historic Balmoral Prisoner of War Camp, areas that have been mined and rehabilitated by Alcoa and others where bauxite mining looms. 

JFP chair Jan Starr said very few mature trees remain.

“It’s that forest that has the most carbon stored. We need to keep whatever big timber we have to protect against climate change,” Ms Starr said.

Bauxite is responsible for less than 5 per cent of mineral sales in WA and employs just 6.2 per cent of the state’s mining sector.

Ms Blacklock says given bauxite’s minnow status within WA’s iron and gas-dominated mining behemoth, the stakes are too high if WA were to lose much more of its jarrah.

Alcoa says it has only mined 4 per cent of its mineral lease and has plans to double that.

Ms Blacklock said JFP have been trying to get specific data on flora and fauna  diversity within rehabilitated areas from Alcoa, but says the company’s published information was a bit thin.

She finds this worrying since Jarrahdale is home to a population of quokkas,  classified as vulnerable. 

JFP has started collaborating with scientists to create their own independent data sets from rehabilitated forests. 

Alcoa’s expansion plans will be subject to public review during an Environmental Protection Authority assessment at the end of the year.

In the meantime Ms Blacklock has urged people to contact their local member of parliament to lodge their disapproval.

by CARSON BODIE

A BAN on transphobia on council, more all-gender public bathrooms, and trans ally awareness training for rangers are all part of a draft Perth council plan to make the city more LGBT+ friendly. 

Rangers will be visibly marked identifying them as safe “allies” once training’s complete, and the council will ask the state government if willing police and transit guards can undergo the same training and marking. 

Along with providing more all-gender bathrooms in council-owned public toilets, they’ll also investigate how their planning rules can be tweaked to encourage all-gender bathrooms in private developments.

The three-year LGBTQIA+ Plan follows the mould of access and inclusion plans usually set up to make cities more inviting for people with disabilities. 

It came about from a residents’ advisory group of 15 gay, trans, and other queer folk the council set up after lord mayor Basil Zempilas made some morning radio comments that were widely deemed anti-trans, and which he’s since apologised for. 

The mayor and councillors have now undergone “ally training”, and the plan will require staff and future elected members to take the course too.

And while the current code of conduct prevents bullying based on gender or sexuality, it’ll now include an explicit “zero tolerance of homophobia or transphobia” rule. Breaches could be referred to the local government standards panel, which can publicly censure councillors or order them to apologise or undergo training. 

Queer content

Just about every area of operation is covered by the draft plan, from more queer content in the library, to even sponsorship and grants being affected. Currently extra funding points can be gained if an event seeking sponsorship includes an element of Aboriginal culture, and if this plan goes through there’ll be an extra event evaluation measure “for LGBTQIA+ inclusion”, and event holders will be encourage to submit a “diversity and inclusion plan” the same way they submit disability access plans.

Councillors will vote on whether to endorse the draft plan at the July 27 meeting, then it’ll go out for public consultation. 

A staff report advises “if council does not endorse the draft LGBTQIA+ Plan, there is a reputational risk for the city with the high potential for dissatisfaction among the LGBTQIA+ community” and the advisory group who volunteered their time to put it together. 

by DAVID BELL