Perth Voice Interactive

SUBIACO Football Club’s CEO has revealed his club didn’t pursue a chance to host this year’s WAFL grand final at Leederville Oval after getting the inside running that Optus Stadium was in the box seat.

Vincent council, Subiaco and East Perth Football Club were working on a joint submission to host the final – a lucrative opportunity for local businesses – with the city sending the clubs a draft expression of interest in April this year.

But Tigers CEO Peter Capes told the Voice he decided it wasn’t worth pouring too much energy into the bid when it became apparent Perth’s big new arena was the “logical” choice.

“The WAFC commissioners had discussions with me about where the grand final could be played, and I said ‘every player wants to play at Optus, but if because of the Covid thing there was an opportunity to play at a local level, somewhere like Leederville, that would be ok’,” Mr Capes said.

“The commissioners indicated they wanted to continue playing at Optus as long as they could.”

East Perth CEO Dean Turner didn’t appear to have been updated on Subiaco’s views when the Voice spoke to him.

Embarrassment

“It was an embarrassment, because people like ourselves and the business community would love to have been able to host the grand final,” Mr Turner said.

Last year’s grand final was played in Fremantle after local traders committed to $50,000 to help cover some of the WAFL’s costs, and Vincent’s bid had considered upping the ante to $70,000.

Mr Turner said the Royals had been ready to approach potential big sponsors, while the Voice heard some notable Leedy businesspeople were willing to contribute.

But the CEO said there wasn’t a follow-up email from the council letting the clubs know where the bid was up to. He says that when he noted a discrepancy between the council’s initial correspondence and the WAFC’s submission deadline, he rang the council and got the response: “Oh shit … damn” but says that wasn’t the staffer preparing the EOI.

The issue came up at Vincent’s June council meeting where former councillor Dudley Maier quizzed the current lineup about why the paperwork didn’t go in.  

He also asked “can you confirm that both the Leederville business community and the football club stood to significantly benefit financially if the grand final was held at Leederville?” and questioned who took responsibility.

by STEVE GRANT and DAVID BELL

IDEAS are being sought for the Pickle District as the old industrial wedge of West Perth undergoes a rebirth as an artsy hub.

Just south of Newcastle Street, it sits on a drained lake that was later home to market gardens, warehouses, manufacturers and pickling plants, which inspired the recent Pickle District rebranding.

The revival’s been spurred by arty businesses moving in among the warehouse, such as the Holmes √† Court Gallery @ No. 10, Stala Contemporary art gallery, Linton & Kay Galleries, and film hub The Backlot. 

Vincent council’s currently finalising a “place plan” that’ll outline big initiatives, including a potential underpass to better connect it to the Leederville town centre (it’s currently cut off by a busy four-lane street).

Feedback on the draft plan’s open until July 23 via imagine. vincent.wa.gov.au or at the council library at 99 Loftus Street. 

In May the council approved disposal of three other dilapidated artworks in East Perth.

The 1998 “Greenway Fountain” artwork installed at the corner of Royal and Fielder Street will be disposed of as it’s in very poor condition. Some controversy surrounds this artwork, as it was created by artist Nola Farman in 1998, and at a later date sandstone plaques with poetic text by Marcelle George were added.

Farman has now told the council she didn’t approve the text plaques, and they weren’t able to contact George for an opinion, so they’ll be removed. 

The last three of the strange dogs in Russell Sheridan’s “Diver and Dogs” artwork on old Belvidere Promenade will also be disposed off, being “significantly degraded”. There was a fourth dog but someone drove a car into it in 2019. Nearby residents asked for the dogs to be replaced with a similar work but councillors voted against spending $50,000 commissioning a replacement. 

And lastly three of the 20 sculptural timber shoreline marker posts Rob Finlayson crafted for the East Perth shoreline have rotted and will be removed. The others will probably degrade within three to five years. 

A BACKPACKERS at 300 Murray Street will reopen soon as a 100-bed homeless shelter, five months after the McGowan government’s troubled election commitment.

Boorloo Bidee Mia will take in troubled rough sleepers and provide support services on site.

The shelter was announced in February in the shadow of the state election, with Labor’s presser stating $14.3m was ready to “immediately” house up to 100 rough sleepers at the YHA backpackers.

But the government didn’t have a secure lease and 300 Murray Street was on the market, leaving the Department of Communities scrambling to find an alternative location.

Now full circle, 300 Murray Street will be the location after all, and is scheduled to open next month.

Drug and alcohol support service Wungening Aboriginal Corporation has been contracted to manage the facility, along with Aboriginal housing group Noongar Mia Mia.

Boorloo Bidee Mia is Noongar for “Perth Pathway to Housing” and the facility will focus on being culturally-appropriate for Aboriginal people given their high rate of homelessness.

Wadjelas are welcome too. Labor’s state Perth MP John Carey says: “I’m really pleased this is commencing.

“This is an appropriate location. I know people often say ‘why are homeless services in the city?’

“Because it’s where people do congregate. That’s where there is activity, food, meeting places, it’s near transport, hospitals, so you do find that people who are sleeping rough tend to go to cities.

“Yes there was a delay… but I’m glad the leasing arrangements have been [resolved], because I do think this is a good location for this facility.

“In terms of potential conflicts with neighbours, it’s not near residential properties, so hopefully we don’t see conflicts.”

The shelter is an interim option intended to tide over some of the city’s rough sleepers, who number roughly 190 in the CBD according to Perth council’s most recent count in March. 

The end game is still a ways off with the state government’s first Common Ground long-term support housing at the corner of Hill and Wellington Streets due to start construction this financial year. 

Given the long wait and increasing homeless counts, Perth council’s now opened two interim safe night spaces, one for women at the Rod Evans Centre and the newly opened men’s space at Citiplace near the Perth train station.

They are hangout spaces with couches and laundries but don’t have beds, as that requires extensive and expensive changes to meet building code standards. 

by DAVID BELL

THE Greens’ sole MP in state parliament, Brad Pettitt, says a longer term solution may lie in the state government buying up vacant buildings to convert them into housing.

Dr Pettitt welcomed the interim shelter in a statement but added “crisis accommodation is not a home. A longer-term solution to ensure these people are permanently housed and not forced back into homelessness is also needed”.

About 1000 people sleep outside in the greater Perth area, and the public housing waitlist grows ever longer.

“The bottom line is that Western Australians are facing an unprecedented housing crisis and, without an equally large and innovative response from the McGowan Government, it will only worsen,” Dr Pettitt says.

“Perth has the highest rate of commercial vacancies in Australia. The Urban Development Institute of Australia has also identified nearly 1,700 vacant properties in Perth that cannot be sold.

 “If the McGowan Government is serious about addressing the housing crisis, they need to be investing in a range of solutions including spotincluding spot-purchasing those thousands of vacant homes, quickly adapting government land and buildings for housing, and converting empty commercial buildings while WA grows its social and general residential housing stock.”

As of April there were about 28,680 people on the public housing waitlist, or 16,660 applications. 

There’ll likely be a spike once numbers catch up with the increase in evictions since the covid rent moratorium ended in April.

“If the McGowan Government is serious about addressing the housing crisis, they need to be investing in a range of solutions

A FORMAL agreement outlining how Perth council will work with Indigenous people has been endorsed after a year-long delay caused by the McGowan government prohibiting the use of the word “treaty”.

The not-treaty was intended to patch up the council’s relationship with the Indigenous community, coming a couple of years after its heavy-handed approach to removing homeless people living at Heirisson Island/Matagarup.

The one-page document previously dubbed the “Danjoo-Treaty” was drawn up with the bridyas, the Noongar leaders on the council’s elders advisory group. It called for the 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. 

It was supposed to be approved at the July 2020 meeting, the last one attended by retiring CEO Murray Jorgensen who’d done a lot of work with the bridyas. 

But the state government argued treaties were reserved for agreements involving land ownership. 

After “several additional engagement sessions”, according to a council report, the bridyas endorsed the new Noongar name Yacker Danjoo Nglada Bidi (“working together our way”).

The YDNB was approved by councillors at this week’s council meeting, more than two years later than the original April 2019 timeframe nominated in the Reconciliation Action Plan.

In a statement issued via the city, elders advisory group member uncle Farley Garlett said: “The City of Perth has come a long way and for me this has been a big change. The Reconciliation Action Plan has given us good ground work for moving forward.

“We’ve been lucky that the City of Perth has been receptive to the conversations we’ve had over the last few years. It has been nothing but positive.

by DAVID BELL