Perth Voice Interactive

FOOD trucks will remain in Hyde Park after a motion to turf out regulars was voted down at this week’s Vincent council meeting.

Councillor Josh Topelberg says the council originally set out to provide “irregular trading for special events”, but some food trucks have turned out to be stickier than a jam doughnut.

Eight brick and mortar businesses have also set up within 200 metres of the park since food trucks were first allowed in about six years ago.  

“Hyde Park and particularly the western end do not need activation – if anything, the proliferation of activity has changed the park significantly from its traditional use for more than a century,” read the preamble to Cr Topelberg’s motion.

“The noise, waste generation, visual impact and the impact of increased vehicle access are having a negative impact on the amenity of the park users and local residents.”

There’s been a few complaints over the years about noise and pollution from generators and some turf disputes between the vendors, who pay $700 a year for an operating permit.

Food truck operator Islam Bouyahia from What the Flip creperie implored the council to let them stay.

“I’ve always had this dream that I wanted to bring a little bit of central park New York to Hyde Park, by having my food truck there,” Mr Bouyahia said.

“I wanted to create tables, community, activity in the area in a way nobody did it before as I couldn’t see it anywhere else around Perth.”

Breaking eggs

“We did run into troubles with some of the operators there, there was a lack of trust, there was competition which is absolutely normal; in French we say ‘you don’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs’,” the Algeria-born, Bordeaux-raised chef said.

“We worked out our problems, we talked, we’re continually trying to build a relationship.

Northbridge resident Peter Bull said the park vendors were invaluable for him and his wife Lindy. 

“Hyde Park is a safe and shaded place to walk and spend time outside and away from traffic. My wife, who is blind and uses a cane, and I, cannot overstate the value of a cafe away from the noise and danger of roads. 

“The western end of the park has become a wonderful social hub where we can cross paths and chat with scores of locals, friends and neighbours.”

Cr Topelberg said his motion was “not a vigilante mission to get rid of food trucks.

“I think it’s a fair representation of a fair proportion of the community who feel this way and expressed it,” Cr Topelberg said.

He reckons he’s had consistent complaints about noise, rubbish, and food choices.

But he was the sole vote in favour.

Both Mr Bouyahia and Mr Bull said noise and fumes could be solved if the council installed a power source so the trucks can ditch the generators. That idea was considered by council in October 2020 but considered less practical than generators, as it’d cost $13,145 to install power and they had no means to measure who’d used electricity.

Meanwhile the council’s plan to consider a permanent kiosk in the nearby storage shed (attached to the toilets near the west end playground) is due to go out for consultation shortly.

by DAVID BELL

PERTH’S five-day Covid lockdown is being sharply felt by local artists, with Fringe World shows cancelled or running at reduced capacity. 

This week the annual arts festival cancelled its awards, using the cash prizes to help affected artists through the Fringe Fund. 

Perth based artist Chelsea Gibson performed in Prismatic and said Fringe’s decision to cancel awards and reviews put shows at a disadvantage for next year’s festival. 

“We only had one reviewer come in for the entire season which really sucks for an emerging company, because reviews are something we can use when we make future applications to do shows so that people take a chance on us. 

Reviews

“With arts it is so hard for us to justify to people outside of our discipline that we are worthy of financial backing, the only way we can do that for people who aren’t in our industry is to tell them about awards,” Gibson said. 

Fringe publicist Sian Collins acknowledged the importance of awards to artists. 

“It was a difficult decision to not present awards at the conclusion of the festival, but we felt that it was the only fair one given that judges were not able to see many of the shows due to the lockdown and the subsequent capacity restrictions.

“We felt that re-allocating awards money to the Fringe Fund was the fairest way of supporting the shows who were impacted by circumstances beyond their control,” Ms Collins said. 

Local performer Reece Horne commended Fringe World’s decision.

“A lot of shows got shut down and they’ve got to try and make that money up somehow, so I think Fringe giving that money back to support them is a really good idea.

“The show going on is the core element of Fringe and that was taken away from so many artists. 

“Giving them the support is more important than giving an award to another show that still had people come and enjoy it,” Horne said.

Writer and performer Eliza Smith’s show was cancelled due to the lockdown. 

Her play If You Need was due to open a day after lockdown but the student collective running the show decided to cancel rather than risk racking up bigger debts. 

“There is that feeling of guilt that you are letting people down by making the decision to cancel the show,” Smith told the Voice. 

“Ultimately doing all that work and getting right up to the 11th hour and having to decide to cancel it was incredibly difficult.” 

Smith said they were reimbursed the money they had put into the show by Fringe World and all involved in the show plan to put it on in future. 

Ms Collins said the lockdown had a “considerable” financial impact on Fringe World, its artists and venues, but the organisation was working with the state government and Fringe Fund to support artists.

by ASTRID DAINTON

A HISTORIC painting showing a rare early view of Hyde Park has been bought by Perth city council after spending years in private collections. 

Walter Paterson Meston’s 1904 Hyde Park has been out of the public eye for years.

Hyde Park history enthusiasts John Viska and Rodney O’Brien had been tracing the painting but have never seen it in person. 

“There are very few representations of Hyde Park in its early days – this has high cultural significance,” Mr Viska says. “It’s evidence they didn’t clearfell every single native tree” and it shows some of the early plantings. 

When it came up for auction late last year, they implored Vincent council to purchase the piece, but it didn’t have the budget.

It was snapped up for $18,000 by an unnamed buyer, and when someone from Perth city council saw the Voice’s story about trying to track down the new owner, they put up their hand.

The park used to be in CoP’s domain, and they’re now working out when and where it’ll be displayed.

Lord mayor Basil Zempilas says: “We are delighted to welcome Walter Paterson Meston‚Äôs 1904 painting of Hyde Park into the City of Perth Cultural Collections.

“It is a rare and poignant representation of Hyde Park from a time where few photographs exist, and the city jumped on the opportunity to acquire this significant piece of work when it was auctioned late last year.

“It is artwork like this that helps us see our great city in a new light, connecting us with Perth’s history, people, places and stories.”

Mr O’Brien was very pleased to hear of the acquisition. 

“Wonderful, first class,” he said. “Quite appropriate,” given the park previously being in their bounds, and a Perth lord mayor WG Brookman was a friend of the park who funded the long-disappeared fountain there.

Mr Viska says it’s a shame that Vincent wasn’t able to get hold of the painting, but Perth council had a fair claim on it: “At least it’s in the public domain and the public will get to see it this time, whereas previously it was in private ownership and nobody got to see it.”

He’s been in touch with Perth council to fill them in on some background on the painting and is looking forward to his first in-person viewing: “I’m dying to see it.”

WITH tourism off the cards for the near future, a taste of international art, craft, culture, and cuisine returns to Perth for the Summer Time Multicultural Festival and Food Bazaar.

Organiser Astit Olszowy from the Perth Indonesian Community tells us “the performers are about 145 people from different cultures and backgrounds,” from traditional Tari Persembahan Indonesian dancers, Chung Wah Lion Dance, Polish dancers, to the Scottish influences of the WA Police Pipe Band.

And “we have many foods; 18 food vendors, a mix of Indonesian, Malay, Chinese, Singaporean, a bit of Mediterranean because we are having kebabs as well!”

With many Perth folk’s love affair with Indonesia on hold to due Covid-19, the festival’s a chance to relive some of what they’re missing.

“This is a good opportunity for the ones who like to travel to Bali; at the moment they cannot go there, so they can enjoy,” Ms Olszowy said.

The festival is on March 6 at Forrest Place from 11am to 6.30pm, and it’s smoke, alcohol and Covid-free.

Nervous back home

ASTIT OLSZOWY, a permanent resident in Australia, is originally from Indonesia and used to visit her family every year. 

“We went back there, luckily, just before Covid,” she said, hopeful the roll-out of vaccines internationally might bring another visit a little closer.

“We are still a bit nervous to go back there. My family always discourages me to go back. They said ‘don’t go back now, because it’s not safe for you’.”

Indonesia has been hit hard by Covid, with the disease’s effects and the economic hardship compounding and fuelling each other.

Welfare is very limited so many people can’t afford to isolate. “It’s hard for them, because we don’t have a welfare system like here. If you don’t work you don’t eat in Indonesia, so that’s why people are still going out.”

She has family in Jakarta and says “lucky my family are alright, they’re pretty careful, wearing masks all the time and if they don’t need to go out, they don’t go out.

“I used to go back every year, but not now. Probably next year, hopefully.”

A PERTH hotel has been left with an outstanding $30,000 bill after no one was willing to take responsibility for 11 homeless people who ended up in its rooms.

Perth City Apartment Hotel had been accommodating some former residents of East Perth’s Tent City, but manager Anthony Coll said after Fremantle’s version was dismantled on premier Mark McGowan’s order, another group turned up.

They included families with young children and three pregnant women – including one who gave birth earlier this week having spent last week’s lockdown on the streets.

Busload

“Somehow a busload of them came here… and I just chucked them in a room,” Mr Coll said.

The Wungening Aboriginal Corporation had been paying for the East Perth residents, but Mr Coll says the Department of Communities has told him that’s all he’ll get.

“They kept telling me ‘they’ve got nothing to do with us’.

“We’ve had to donate food out of our pockets to help these people.

“At the end of the day, the government said they are paying for the Tent City people – these are the Tent City people.

A Communities spokesperson told the Voice the 11 people were moved there by homeless advocate Jesse Noakes without government consultation. 

“Jesse had brokered that arrangement directly with the hotel, and had then said, ‘you can send the bill to Communities’,” the spokesperson said.

They deny the group had been Tent City residents.

Mr Noakes said it’s his job to get vulnerable people off the streets and into accommodation. 

“I have worked closely with this government for many months to develop immediate responses to homelessness that do just this,” he said. “Recently, despite my repeated attempts to maintain open communications, they have stopped taking my calls or responding to emails, of which there have been many. 

“If a WA small business has been left to foot the bill for the government’s anarchic approach to public accounts and announcements, that is not through a lack of effort on my part.” 

“The government is usually very eager to make vague, expansive announcements about future funding plans and extremely reluctant to foot the bill when it actually counts”.

One of the group of 11 said she felt like she was being “kept in the dark”.

“I’m going from place to place,” she said.  

She said she’s been receiving mixed messages from bureaucrats, who’ve told her she’s supposed to go on a priority list, but keep rejecting her appeals for accommodation.

by KELLY WARDEN