Perth Voice Interactive

SLOW points may be on the way for North Perth under a new Vincent council traffic-calming plan.

However long-term traffic petitioners have already panned the initiative as making little sense. 

Cars snaking through every little residential street has been a long-time concern in the inner-city suburb. 

Back in 2017 residents called on Vincent council to run a proper consultation session to hash out ideas on how to keep heavy traffic on the main roads and out of small streets, coming at it holistically instead of the old approach of sticking a speed bump in one street and waiting to see where that diverts the rat runners.

Resident Geraldine Box put in a formal petition in 2018 requesting council “engages with residents to develop acceptable measures to make these streets safe and more liveable”. 

Ms Box says “the residents asked for some proper sit-down consultation with both council admin officers and some councillors there to talk through what the full options could be for some kind of low-traffic neighbourhood. We didn’t want one street receiving treatment and some others left.”

She says that’s yet to happen: Instead the council seems to come up with a plan first and ask questions later, and it’s happened again with these slow-points.

“What they’ve put in this proposal doesn’t make any sense for traffic calming,” Ms Box says, especially in relation to long roads like Claverton and Alma which just have one slow-point in the middle. She predicts that may do little to lower speeds and neighbours have expressed concern it’ll just increasing noise as hoons slam on the breaks on approach and then rev their engines to jet away. Hitting the kerb is optional, but a popular option, based on the thick rubber marks on existing slow-points around town.

Ms Box doesn’t claim to have all the answers and says that’s why a proper workshop is ideal, but she suggested some ‘street-filtering’ such as restricted turns on minor streets to encourage only local traffic to use them.

Instead of calming the homely streets they got the controversial 12-month trial banning right hand turns from Fitzgerald onto View Street. Since it started early this year the Voice gets a call or complaint about it every fortnight on average. 

That kind of street-filtering is meant to be used on the small streets, and putting it at View Street has diverted traffic into the little surrounding roads that residents wanted to be calmed in the first place.

“We’ve certainly noticed an increase in the amount of traffic” in those smaller streets since the closure, Ms Box says.

The slow-point plan is out for consultation via imagine.vincent.wa.gov.au until May 27. 

The council says slow-points, which can either reduce traffic to one lane or just give them a “blister” style island to navigate around, “are effective at slowing traffic”, but usually cost four parking bays of space.

They’re also keen to hear what people think of the View Street trial so far.

Ms Box says she hopes the slow-point plan gets put aside until the proper consultation can be run, and not the current approach of “a tick-box that says ‘this is what we’re planning to do ‘what do you think?’ 

“Bring people in earlier on.”

by DAVID BELL

AS fast as Bayswater council can plant new trees, state government projects and private development just keeps tearing down older growth.

Last planting season the council put in 50,000 tubestock native plants and 1,500 new street trees, in an effort to the goal of 20 per cent tree canopy coverage by 2025. 

The canopy plan’s starting point in 2014 was 13.2 per cent coverage. The last big review in November 2020 showed they had gone backwards and now had just 10.2 per cent cover and had the greatest spread of “grey growth” in the country, with 60 per cent of the area now pavement, roads and carparks.

A report to councillors this week said the City’s own tree-planting efforts just weren’t replacing greenery as fast as it was being felled, “due to continued loss of canopy on private property and large canopy loss due to key infrastructure projects”.

It didn’t name them, but the big recent ones have been the state-government approved clearing of riverfront blocks for housing, the Tonkin Highway works, and the Bayswater train station upgrades (the trees there are being replaced with more numbers-wise, but they’re small and the canopy will take many years to fill in).

The council was quizzed from all sides about the tree loss at the AGM in March, from Future Bayswater members, business owners, and traditional tree-lovers alike.

Future Bayswater’s Andrew Watt noted it had been two years since an AGM motion called on the council to look at more incentives for property owners to keep trees, including rate differentials for maintaining trees or development bonuses that allow taller, skinnier buildings that leave trees on the block.

The council agreed to investigate which incentives might be effective but the project’s been delayed.

Mr Watt said “sadly, since the time of that motion in 2019, the City of Bayswater was named in the renowned national report by RMIT, the ‘Greener Spaces, Better Places’ as being the worst in the nation of its type and urban local government for lack of tree canopy and also the worst in Australia for the highest increase in grey hard space that creates the urban heat island effect. 

“Not exactly the outcome I’m sure that the city would have desired.”

Urban planner and ecophile Greg Smith said “unless you’ve closed your eyes lately you’ll see that the Tonkin Highway and that Gap proposal have cut down so many trees, and of course the town centre upgrade to do with the train has cut down so many trees, that they will have an impact on Bayswater’s canopy percentage. But even I wouldn’t blame the City of Bayswater totally for that, because I don’t think it has much say in it.”

But he did think the council should be stricter in enforcing its rules requiring one tree per four bays in commercial developments, and he’s been campaigning for them to do more to protect trees on private blocks.

The council’s currently working on a draft “significant tree register” to preserve notable trees, coming to a future council meeting. Mr Smith reckons blanket protection for trees above an established height is a better way to go than the dob-in-a-big-tree approach. 

Bayswater’s also started working with the Urban Design Research Council on rejigging its approach to hit that 20 per cent canopy target.

by DAVID BELL

SIMON DOYLE recently published, along with co-author Jenny Mills, a biography of his great-grandfather George Barber, a doctor who served with the Fremantle Garrison before sailing off to run a venereal disease hospital for unfortunate Anzacs who’d camped right next to an Egyptian brothel district. During his research, he also uncovered a hand-written poem by famed bard Banjo Paterson in his great-grandmother’s journal, which has now been published for the first time.

SOLDIER Sailor Surgeon: The Life of George Barber, which I wrote with Jenny Mills, is a timely addition to those books that acknowledge the contributions of our Anzacs. This one differs in that it specifically covers some of medical history of World War I.

George Barber was my great-grandfather; I first learnt about him when I came across a ribbon-bound bundle of letters and postcards that my grandmother Kathleen Sandover had kept.

These letters, which were the main incentive for writing the book, were from George to his wife Jess, and were sent from Egypt, Gallipoli and various battle zones in France/Belgium during the war.

Curiosity

My curiosity was piqued and I conducted extensive research at places such as the Australian War Memorial and the JS Battye Library, and I uncovered a trove of information about his fascinating role as a pioneering doctor in Kalgoorlie and as deputy director medical services in charge of medical arrangements for the Australian Corps on the Western Front.

George first met Jess Loughborough in 1894 on his last trip as a P&O ship doctor. 

She was returning to her home in the Blue Mountains after studying French and German in Switzerland.

On the journey George proposed and then left for England to sort out his business affairs prior to the two of them moving to the nascent WA goldfields.

Jess’ parents were happy for the union but were likely to be aware of the fact that George’s family, through his mother, Isabella Loughborough, were directly related to a notorious but hapless early 18th century Barbadian pirate, Stede Bonnet.

The book includes an interesting anecdote about Jess and Banjo Paterson.

Before George had returned from England, Jess was chaperoned to a bush dance by Banjo Paterson who was so grateful for her not mentioning horses that he wrote a poem (the wail of the horse poet) for her in her journal. This is the first time this Banjo poem has been published.

George and Jess spent 17 rambunctious years in Kalgoorlie where George ran the Kalgoorlie Hospital, a period in which they underwent numerous trials and tribulations (including typhoid outbreaks, and political and professional intrigues). 

In 1912 they moved to Perth where George opened a practice in Milligan Street and became heavily engaged in the Civilian Military Force in the Fremantle Garrison, right up to his enlistment at the outbreak of the first word war.

Venereal disease

George arrived in Egypt in January 1917 and was immediately asked to run a venereal disease hospital on the outskirts of Cairo. 

In retrospect the Australian camp based adjacent to the pyramids of Giza was a poor site, with its close proximity to the Cairo brothel district (the Wasa) resulting in an immediate outbreak of venereal disease. 

The soldiers did not acquit themselves very well and were reputed to have the highest incidence of VD of all the forces (and also instigated two riots in the Wasa district. This aspect was glossed over in the official records as a ‘rag’.

He subsequently served on a number of gruesome hospital ships stationed off Gallipoli. 

In January 1916 he was made assistant director of medical services for the 4th Australian Division which left for France in June. 

In April 1918 he was made deputy director medical services for the Australian Corps. 

His skill as an organiser and administrator was most fully appreciated in mid-1918 when trench warfare gave way to mobile warfare and his standing orders became the basis of those for the whole Australian Corps.

Just one week after this appointment he was asked to conduct an autopsy on Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron) – it was his autopsy and subsequent report which demonstrated that he was shot by an Australian machine gunner on the ground.

Our book covers medical issues such as shellshock, gassing, trench foot, trench fever, sanitation, influenza, blood resuscitation and venereal disease that confronted soldiers in the war; and shows how the conditions enabled and necessitated many medical advances.

The book also recounts a number of narrow escapes, both on land and sea which, in keeping with his Edwardian demeanour, he showed seeming indifference. 

For example in August 1916, after moving to Albert, close to the front line, George breezily recounted in a letter to Jess: “They put about 200 HG shells into us that night and if any of them had been a direct hit we should have gone to Glory but please don’t worry too much.” 

However, his reassurances to Jess were premature as shortly thereafter: “My office…was unfortunately blown into the street by a shell which wrecked the house… luckily no one was hurt all of us being absent at mess.” 

In May 1925 he was appointed, director general of medical services at Australian Army headquarters, Melbourne. He was in charge of medical services for the Australian Army, as well as the Royal Australian Air Force and the Department of Civil Aviation. 

He held these offices until his retirement from the army on August 20, 1934. The last 17 years of his life were spent in a quiet semi-rural practice at Kalamunda.

Copies of the book can be obtained from simondoyle123@yahoo.com

THIS week’s story from the Vincent Local History Centre looks at the now-demolished Brisbane Street Synagogue that was once the centre of Jewish life in WA. The LHC is also hoping to find photographs and any information about another demolished synagogue on Palmerston Street run by the Perth Jewish Association. 

THE Brisbane Street Synagogue stood on Brisbane Street in Perth from 1897 until it was demolished in the 1980s. It was home to the Perth Hebrew Congregation for almost 80 years, before they moved north to their present home in Menora in the 1970s.

The Perth Hebrew Congregation formed in 1892 at a time when gold discoveries were attracting more immigrants to Western Australia. 

While there had been small Jewish communities in Fremantle and the Goldfields from earlier colonial times, at the turn of the 20th century Perth became the focus of Jewish life in Western Australia with the Brisbane Street Synagogue at its core.  

The synagogue was built on land granted by the Lands Department on an acre block just east of the corner of William and Brisbane Streets, near the Perth Mosque. 

Buildings on the site, which ran between Brisbane Street and Robinson Avenue, consisted of a brick and stone synagogue that could accommodate 300 worshippers, the manse, a community hall (Prince’s Hall) and five semi-detached cottages at the southern end of the block.

With its circular tower and large rose window, the synagogue was a distinct landmark building in the area.  

Rabbi David Isaac Freedman, Western Australia’s first ordained Hebrew minister, led the congregation from 1897 to 1939. 

He served as Jewish chaplain to the Australian forces during WWI, and after the war he continued to serve the community developing ancillary agencies and the religious school that was attached to the congregation.

The Perth Hebrew School was originally located in the Prince’s Hall at the rear of the synagogue.

Dances

The Prince’s Hall, which had a stage, kitchen and adjoining rooms, also served as a communal centre for public meetings and social functions.  

Mount Lawley resident Ivan Bercove, whose parents were active members of the congregation of the Brisbane Street Synagogue, recalls dances and community events held in the Prince’s Hall: 

“My father used to organise things. He knew people that ran circuses. He used to get a few artists to come to the Prince’s Hall and he would run a night there with a tight rope walker or a dancer for the people to come and watch.

“He also ran a dance there to make the kids dance so they could get to know one another and hopefully marry one another.

“He did quite a lot of things for the Jewish community … he was very good at looking after new immigrants that came [to Perth]. 

“His parents had done the same thing and it was instilled in him to try and help people.” (Interview with Ivan Bercove, COV Local History Collection, OH292) 

In 1974, the Perth Hebrew Congregation moved to a new and larger synagogue in Menora which was closer to residential areas that were home to more Jewish families.

But the former Brisbane Street Synagogue lives on in the memories of community members, some of which have been shared with the Vincent Local History Centre which holds several photographs of the interior and exterior of the Brisbane Street Synagogue prior to its demolition in the mid-1970s. 

To view the images visit: https://cityofvincent.imagegallery.me/

If anyone has photographs of the Brisbane Street Synagogue, or the Prince’s Hall which served as a community centre behind the former synagogue, please contact the Vincent Local History Centre. 

MURDOCH UNIVERSITY’S Antimicrobial and Infectious Diseases Laboratory has made a breakthrough in monitoring bacteria using robotics that promises to slash medical costs and hospitals stays.

Sam Abraham from the AMRID-Abraham laboratory at the uni said using robotics could speed up testing for bacterial infections by 700 per cent. 

“Looking for emerging resistance, currently humans are doing all the work… there’s a high cost associated with this, testing is expensive and slow… humans can only work for so long.” Dr Abraham said.

“A person can do 100 tests a week a robot 1000 per day or more… we are making better tools.

“Bacteria that causes infection can build a resistance to the drugs; if an infection can’t be cured at the basic level they have to go to hospital.” 

Dr Abraham said the cumulative global cost of bacterial resistance is estimated to rise to US$100 trillion by 2050. He said this was due to “lengthy hospital stays”.

Robotics could also be used to reduce the cost monitoring bacteria in livestock.

Dr Abraham gave the example of the pork industry in Scandinavian Denmark where out of 28 million pigs in only 200 are tested for infections per year”. He says that’s nowhere near adequate to tackle bacterial infections adequately.

Dr Abraham says the ability to conduct real time monitoring through robotics could also have great benefits during a pandemic. “COVID testing; hard to do thousands, we can do it cost effectively and fast so it can be used globally.”

The Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment is funding this research as well others in the field of AMR a part of its $157 million “Rural R&D for Profit Programme”. The department was contacted for comment.

RICHARD VAN UFFELEN

SEEING devastating scenes from Covid’s latest wave in India, the owners of Inglewood’s Chakra Restaurant held a fundraiser night to help their birth country’s collapsing medical system.

India was doing relatively well against Covid until last month when it was hit by a surge of the more infectious UK strain, exacerbated by mass gatherings allowed to go ahead because the worst of the pandemic was thought to be over.

Mass cremations

Now almost 400,000 new cases are reported each day, hospitals are running out of oxygen supplies and demand for wood to fuel the mass cremations is so high people are asking if they can strip the trees in local parks.  

Chakra co-owner Sonia says she was moved to act after seeing footage of “mass cremations back in India”.

She says on April 28 “the first thing I saw that morning was a community park filled with bodies”.

She could hardly believe it and had to call home to confirm if the images were real. They were.

Many Indians observe structured burial rituals to honour the dead, and Sonia and her husband Kumar say it would be especially hard for people who’d lost loved ones to have to forgo the comfort of those rites. 

“We’re enjoying a cup of coffee here, and people there are struggling, the conditions are really bad,” Sonia says.

“The stories from friends and family are devastating.

“The residential buildings are sealed, so kids are not even allowed to come out of their houses.” 

Sonia is originally from northern India and has lost two family members to Covid-19. 

The medical system is under so much pressure train carriages are being used as hospital wards.

One of her former students recently reporting he was struggling to find an oxygen cylinder for a family member. Other family friends have died within days of showing symptoms, one just in his 50s.

“Two of my dad’s friends died in one day. That was scary. My in-laws,” Kumar’s parents, “both of them are there, and can’t go out.”

After the fundraising night donations continued the next day as patrons found out about the cause and wanted to contribute and a total of about $4,000 was reached. Now another restaurant has heard the call and got on board.

“Some very good news,” Sonia says. “Odyssea City Beach restaurant… they said ‘we’re so happy to see you  did a fundraiser and we want to help raise funds for India with you on a larger scale’.” The collaboration will see Chakra cooking at the larger venue for a sold-out 130-head fundraising night on May 17.

“We’re excited that people are supporting it,” Sonia says.