Perth Voice Interactive

Photo Caption: Cr Elizabeth Re has been trying for years to get a women’s shed in Stirling. File photo

DESPITE the overwhelming popularity of a women’s shed in Stirling, the local council has decided against setting up a permanent version for now.

Councillor Elizabeth Re has been pushing for a women’s shed ever since the city’s men’s shed opened in 2011, saying they need a space for women keen to learn more about tools or maintain their hands-on skills. 

The council of the day was reluctant but in 2019 her colleagues endorsed a one-year pilot, running sessions on topics like tool skills, painting, household maintenance, car maintenance and plumbing.

There was huge demand: The sessions booked out fast and 220 women asked to be put on the waiting list. 

But they were put in temporary locations that didn’t always work out. 

The first sessions were at the Innaloo Sportsmen’s Club. While the club’s committee welcomed the women workers a council report says the club’s members “did not fully embrace the program and frequently interrupted activities” and workshops had to be shifted to other spots. 

Despite the demand most councillors at the June 8 meeting voted against building a permanent women’s shed for now. 

Instead come budget time they’ll consider listing $45,000 for upgrades to the Scarborough Community Centre to house more trial sessions. It won’t be able to house heavy machinery or table saws, only “light power tools”. 

Cr Re urged colleagues to get on with setting up a permanent shed, saying “it’s been 10 years in the making trying to get this established… This is a really good project, it’s got to stop being a pilot program. I ask councillors to put a stop to this never-ending pilot program and just get on with doing it”.

Any chance of a permanent women’s shed has been kicked down the road to be considered “in the medium to long term”, likely more than four years off. 

In a strange quirk of funding requirements, the council has been offered Lotterywest cash to continue the women’s shed trial program, but Lotterywest won’t pay for an actual building that only caters to one gender.

by DAVID BELL

TWO petitions calling on Vincent council to keep collecting business bins have failed to sway the council to overturn a decision to axe the service.

But in a small concession, micro businesses will be allowed to pay to switch over to the council’s three bin FOGO system.

In September 2020 the council decided to stop collecting commercial waste as of mid-2021, chiefly because it was thought to be too hard to run the incoming three-bin FOGO system for businesses.

It’s also more expensive dealing with business waste, as it’s heavier on non-recyclable material and a lot ends up in landfill.

The council’s lack of consultation ahead of making the call has caused a lot of discontent around the city.

Last month Stirling Street business owner Cam Sinclair submitted a 101-signature petition calling on the council to “reconsider the discontinuation of commercial waste collections for the 2,111 small businesses in our community who rely on it every week”.

Former mayor Nick Catania also submitted a similar petition with 273 signatures.

The council’s decision was partly motivated by a plan to send zero waste to landfill by 2028. 

But Mr Catania pointed out the waste still had to go somewhere even if it was off the council’s ledger: “Private waste collectors will also dump their waste in landfill and cause environmental damage.”

He said business bins are the same as those used by residents, so they didn’t require extra trucks rumbling through town centres, while it was unfair for businesses to pay the same rates for a reduced service.

The council’s now confirmed there’ll be a “micro business” service, allowing tiddler enterprises to go FOGO from October for $699 a year, if the trucks don’t have to go out of their way.

And to slightly soften the bin-change blow Vincent’s announced traders will get a mild reprieve with a second year of no rate rises, but that means residential rates will likely go up 2.4 per cent.

This coming year affected businesses will also get a rebate of about $520 that’d normally go towards bin collection, but there’s no guarantee that future councils will offer a recurring rebate.

by DAVID BELL

Photo Caption: Fenian John Casey

FREMANTLE’S Fenian Festival is back, and this year the key lecture will focus on a journalist and writer who blew the whistle on the appalling treatment of young women arriving at Fremantle, a little-known stain on the colony’s history.

John Sarsfield Casey was arrested at 21-years-old for writing seditious letters to the Fenians’ newspaper under the name The Galtee Boy and was transported to Western Australia.

He arrived in Fremantle aboard the last of the convict ships, Hougoumont, in 1868, keeping a journal during the journey despite continuous sea sickness.

On his release from prison, Casey was appointed as school teacher in York – ironically teaching the settlers’ children to write at the same time he was getting stuck into the colonists in his own journal.

What Casey saw horrified him, particularly the treatment of young women arriving on “bride ships” to help even out the colony’s gender imbalance.

His writings, published in the the Irishman after he returned home in 1870, give a blunt warning to anyone considering following them.

“Poor simple souls, little do they know what the future has in store for them,” he wrote.

“Better, far better, that the gallant ship that bore you from your native hills had sunk within sight of the barren shores of Australia; than cast you safely on its shores a fresh victim to the licentiousness and dissipation of Australia.”

Festival chair Margot O’Byrne says his writings detailed how young women would be paraded before settlers from outlying areas who had requested a servant.

The girls would be given a glowing reference of the settler and his wife.

“When she gets out there after days of travel, it’s only to find there’s only her and him – there’s no wife – and she ended up as his mistress,” Ms O’Byrne said.

Casey himself outlines the horror of their situation: “Should the wretch attempt to ill-use her against her consent, her screams for help are drowned by the gentle sighing of the wind through the trees.”

Ms O’Byrne said although Casey might have had an axe to grind against colonial authorities, he was a journalist at heart and his writings made compelling reading.

“He is an amazing character, and that’s why I have fallen in love with Casey.”

Two of Casey’s descendents, Patrick and Mairead Maume, will be giving the lecture, named Wild Goose after the hand-written newspaper the Fenians produced during the Hougoumont’s voyage.

Thanks to Covid, they’ll be delivering it from Ireland, but it will be screened to a live audience at the WA Maritime Museum on Sunday June 13 at 4pm. Tickets are $20 ($15 conc) from eventbrite. com.au (search for Wild Goose Lecture 2021).

Following the screening there’ll be traditional Irish music and singing at Kidogo Arthouse. It’s a free event, but there’ll be food and drink available.

A MOVE to force Stirling council to reveal more about how it spends money has been voted down.

At last month’s electors’ general meeting Roland Hadley from the Ewen Street Community Group moved that “any invoice over $10,000 has more than two words in the details”. 

He’s made previous attempts at public question times to get council to clarify its spending, including in 2019 when he queried why Stirling’s payments to panel beating contractor S&A Smash Repairs were consistently over-budget; recently he’s queried the council’s soaring arborist spend. 

At the EGM Mr Hadley said it was “hardly adequate” that hundreds of thousands of dollars could be spent and the only information the public gets is “two words” in a big list of payments. 

Electors supported his motion but at this week’s council meeting, staff advised councillors it’d be too much work. 

They said there’s more than 5,000 invoices per month and more information would have to be added manually and checked over to make sure there were no privacy or commercial confidentiality breaches. 

The staff advised no change. They boldly described the current two word descriptors as “narratives” 

and said they complied with financial management regulations. 

While Mr Hadley had no luck getting them to reveal more about the finances, his queries about the staggering smash repair bills has been followed by fewer prangs. 

When he asked about the spend back in 2019, the council had been shelling out about $240,000 per year over the previous five years on panel beating, well above the $185,000 annual budget. 

The city committed to reduce crashes and the panel beating spend has stayed under budget since. 

by DAVID BELL

Photo Caption: Neil Graham from the Beaufort Street Network and Vincent mayor Emma Cole discuss the future of Beaufort Street.

A NEW plan’s in the works to get Beaufort Street back to its prime, with a round-the-clock 40kmh speed limit and a plan to pedestrianise some side streets to get people back to the strip. 

Vincent council’s been collaborating with the Beaufort Street Network on a draft Beaufort Street Town Centre Place Plan that’s now out for public comment.

The plan recognises that being a thru-lane for city traffic is a long-term problem, with four lanes of cars and frequent buses killing the alfresco atmosphere and cutting the strip in two.

Aside from the sole pedestrian crossing on Walcott Street, people on foot are on their own. 

The draft plan suggests a uniform 40kmh speed limit to replace the existing variable limit which kicks in at odd hours, mostly morning til late evening. 

A trial “pedestrianisation” of Grosvenor Road and Barlee Street is also on the cards. The trial would close them off to see if side streets work as shared spaces like Leederville Village Square, which can be transformed from street to plaza as needed. 

Other planned improvements include festoon lighting to make the Mary Street Piazza more usable at night (and more light along the strip), and installing fast-charge stations for electric cars. 

Mayor Emma Cole says: “Beaufort Street is undergoing a resurgence right now, with some very significant investment on the strip and new development and landmark venues in the works.” 

Recently a big new tavern and restaurant was approved for the old Empire site. 

“It is a really exciting time and cements Beaufort Street as a top Perth destination,” Ms Cole said.

One controversial idea for the street is mentioned in the plan, but yet to be set in stone; earlier this year the council floated the idea of a “land swap” to take over the corner of Barlee and Beaufort and turn it into public open space. 

They’d trade the middle third of the carpark they own to developer Palassis to conjoin two blocks and have a bigger space to develop.

But that project would cost between $500,000 and $ 1million. Long time Beaufort Street advocate and past BSN chair Joshua O’Keefe said in March the council should fix the basics on the street before adding “another underperforming glamour project”. 

But the plan still pegs that as being in the “investigate options” stage, based on consultation feedback.

The draft place plan’s up for viewing and comment via imagine.vincent.wa.gov.au or in person at the 99 Loftus Street library until June 21. 

Photo Caption Infant turtles: So small, but so brave. Bayswater councillor Catherine Ehrhardt cradles this little oblong on its release day.

TEN tiny turtles grew big enough to be released into Maylands’ Lake Bungana on June 1, after nearby resident Margaret Landre found their nest had been disturbed and called in a rescue.

She noticed the oblong turtle nest last November, suspecting a dog or fox may have dug them up. The eggs are very delicate and just re-burying them doesn’t lead to a very high survival rate. 

Ms Landre contacted the Turtle Oblonga Rescue and Rehabilitation Network which excavated what was left of the eggs. They had to be careful not to rotate them as the embryo can easily become detached from the inside of the egg, killing the turtle. 

ATTORN volunteer looked after the eggs and then the infants went to another specialist carer to make sure they grew big enough to catch food on their own. 

Bayswater councillor Catherine Ehrhardt filled us in on the turtle release, noting that oblong turtles are important to the Maylands lakes ecosystem: Even tiny turtles eat about 70 mosquito larvae a day.

Cr Ehrhardt said the turtles nest on the shorelines in sandy soil, “and this is why it’s really important that dogs remain on a lead near our lakes and wetland areas, and cats are kept inside”. 

Ms Landre, a member of the Friends of Maylands Lakes, says the turtles don’t have many spaces to nest and encouraged anyone with some free time to come along to the next FoML planting day on August 7 at 9am, between Lake Bungana and the Brickworks Lake. The planting helps the turtles as the mummas like to hide in vegetation while they look for a sandy spot to nest. 

The turtles, slow and steady as always, missed having their release coincide with World Turtle Day on May 23. 

by DAVID BELL

A KIOSK is looking likely for Hyde Park despite concerns about the park’s vegetation and its status as a commercial-free zone. 

Vincent council is seeking tenders for the fit out of a warm kitchen in a storage shed within the western toilet block.

Several councillors had mixed feelings; before approving an operator they want a plan on how the business will ensure the venerable but delicate trees nearby are protected, an assurance there won’t be a lot of single-use plastics, and they want healthy food options.

There were 658 submissions on the plan with 72 per cent supporting a kiosk; objectors raised some stern concerns.

John Viska was one of the authors of the 2003 Hyde Park conservation plan and is chair of the WA branch of the Australian Garden History Society. The AGHS’s national body has put Hyde Park put on its “landscapes at risk” list.

Mr Viska says activity around the trees could risk their health, and the park should remain a non-commercial zone (as it was before food trucks came along).  

Most councillors voted to seek tenders, but they’ll still have to approve an operator before they go ahead, and decide if food trucks should continue operating nearby.  

Cr Dan Loden described his vote as “conditional support: I’m supporting [council staff] continuing to look at this but the community has raised a number of very valid concerns about this opportunity, including how the waste will be collected, the impact on the neighbouring trees, the heritage approvals and the trading zone issue, the cost impost on the city of any desired outcome, the impacts on park amenity.”

Cr Jonathan Hallett noted the food vans were well-loved, but a kiosk was “a level of commercial encroachment on a public space with significant heritage value that doesn’t sit well with me”. 

Cr Alex Castle concurred: “I’m not at all convinced that this is necessarily the best option for Hyde Park. And I’m not in favour of an increase in intensity overall, whether that means only a kiosk or only food trucks remains to be seen from this process… and I agree with many of the comments from the gallery that the park in itself is a beautiful place to be that doesn’t require any further intensification to be relevant.”

But mayor Emma Cole sounded keener, noting the surge of feedback was one of the biggest in recent years, and putting it an existing building would ensure the impact was minimal.

by DAVID BELL