Perth Voice Interactive

Women in Tent City beg for protection

WOMEN living in ‘Tent City’ on Northbridge’s fringe have called for urgent shelter to protect them from escalating rates of sexual assault and violence. 

The camp, perched beside the train line and a bike path under the Lord Street overpass, has been expanding and the Voice understands a couple of its new residents are newly out of prison.

The deteriorating conditions have support services deeply concerned for the women who live there, particularly two who are pregnant.

“Someone’s gonna to die there really soon,” one told the Voice, saying they believed the reports of sexual assault are “credible”.

Vulnerable

One woman said she rarely felt safe in her tent and a decent night’s sleep was a rarity. She’d previously had encounters with men who’d tried to prey on her vulnerable situation which had pushed her onto the streets.

The hopelessness of her situation is unbearable: “I just can’t do this any more,” she said through tears.

The evidence of violence is all too obvious, with many of Tent City’s residents bandaged and scarred.

“They’ve been hit with sticks and stones and bottles,” one of Tent City’s residents, Raymond, told the Voice.

“They’re cut up, they’ve lost teeth – I’m not sure if you’re gonna put them on a cash register in Coles,” he said. 

UWA homeless healthcare researcher Lisa Wood said they weren’t isolated incidents.

Prof Wood said an ongoing four-year survey found that while only half of homeless men indicated they’d been attacked on the streets, over two-thirds of homeless women had experienced an assault.

“This is a really pervasive issue – that women on the street are more vulnerable,” said Ms Wood. 

“Sometimes women have said to us that that’s why they use meth – to stay awake at night so they’re safe.” 

Back in Tent City a man known as Uncle Neville said he hadn’t slept properly in the three years he’d been homeless. 

“When you sleep, you sleep… but what you’re more worried about is your sister-girls and your nieces,” he said. 

He said he’d spent most nights “walking around to see if everything’s okay”.

“Get these young women off these streets.

“They don’t deserve to be on the streets,” he said.

Ms Wood, said about a third of the babies being taken into care at King Edward Hospital, are coming from mothers who are homeless.

“It’s really hard to engage women who are homeless into anti-natal care because they are scared of having their babies taken from them”. 

A woman named Shona said a backpackers had been promised to the residents of Tent City. 

“Ummmmmm, what’s happening with all that?” she said. 

Meanwhile Uncle Neville warns unless housing can be found for Tent City’s residents, the violence will be impossible to contain and may spill over into the surrounding streets.

by KELLY WARDEN

A BLANKET 40kmh speed limit could be applied across Vincent’s residential streets.

Under a draft Accessible City Strategy 2020-2030 the council says the statewide 50kph speed limit doesn’t suit local conditions.

Mayor Emma Cole says: “For too long now, residents have been telling me that 50kmh feels too fast for our residential streets. We’d love to know if the rest of Vincent is ready for 40kmh.”

Vincent’s been trialling 40kmh on residential roads in its southern half since April 2019.

There’s little detail on the trial results, which are due for a November release, but the summary findings declare “some speed reduction and crash benefits” and more pedestrians and cyclists.

Council transport staff reckon if the lower limit is kept in place median speeds will keep dropping.

The strategy will be out for public comment shortly, and if adopted the 40kmh limit will be in by 2023. 

Other actions include ensuring a network of safe pedestrian paths with priority lights at intersections, and a “dense network of cycling routes”. They want to reduce 

the number of Vincent residents driving to work from the current 67 per cent to 48 per cent by 2030.

Another controversial recommendation in the strategy is for the city to start charging for residential parking permits that allow locals to park in their streets.

Ms Cole penned an amendment that they delete the paid-permits idea from the draft plan. 

The amendment said “this would not be welcomed or supported by Vincent residents at this time, even as part of an aspirational 10 year plan” and councillors unanimously voted to scrap it.

by DAVID BELL

MORLEY’S loss is West Perth’s gain as a burlesque charity car wash relocates to give locals a shine with a cheeky smile.

The burlesque community had run fundraisers at Fast Eddy’s in Morley since 2013, raising cash for causes like kids with cancer and Radio Lollipop.

With Eddy’s closing down founder Nikki Mauri moved the 2020 carwash to the “Pickle District”; a curious wedge of West Perth’s old industrial zone south of Newcastle Street.

“Many of the Perth burlesque community have lost gigs because of Covid but they will still volunteer their time to help a cause (and me), because as a community, we stick together,” Ms Mauri said.

“I put a call out and I will get around 20 volunteers and their friend to come out.”

The proceeds from the car wash this year go towards an animal rescue, de-sexing and rehoming charity. Ms Mauri’s picked a spot by Bali Alfresco Living because “they promote upcycled and refurbished items – which also goes back to providing money to people in Indonesia that are suffering because of the lack of tourism”.

It’s a tropical themed day with food vans on site and they’re hoping people dress up tropically and hang out, .

It’s at 39 Old Aberdeen Place, on November 15, 10am-3pm.

by DAVID BELL

CONTENTIOUS electronic parking permits will be rolled out in Vincent, with the council saying it’s already bought the software and can’t back out.

Residents weren’t consulted about the new system, which will force them to log into a council app to register their cars and those of visitors, while the change also caught some councillors on the hop.

A petition with 26 signatures went to Vincent council on October 20 calling for a halt e-permits until a decent consultation was conducted.

Petitioner Fiona Keating – the fifth resident to approach the Voice over the system – said the signatories have concerns about inconvenience, limited access to computers for some, and not being able to tell whether cars in their street are legally parked or not since no one will have permits displayed. There’s also privacy concerns as the council will have a log of which vehicles have visited which property.

Mayor Emma Cole does think the e-permit system is beneficial but doesn’t think the admin did a great job conveying that. 

Procured

She responded to the petition at the October 20 meeting: “I have checked with the CEO and understand that the software for the e-permit system has already been procured.”

Ms Cole requested council staff prepare a report addressing the petitioners’ concerns and asked that consultation be done as part of the rollout, to “iron out any issues that might emerge and to be responsive to those”.

Benefits of the news system should be happy tech-savvy residents who’ll enjoy a streamlined application process and receive fewer parking tickets of their own to appeal.

Ms Keating remains sceptical on those points: “I am intrigued with how ‘increased customer satisfaction’ will be measured particularly when the city’s administration has not sought the community’s views about changing the current system. 

“Also, on what basis does the administration expect e-permits will decrease the number of infringement appeals? 

“My conversations suggest the opposite. Residents expect more appeals, for example, if only one letter or number of the licence plate is entered incorrectly, the visitor will unreasonably be fined.

“In part I am concerned because new reasons have constantly been put forward as to why consultation is not needed for the e-permit system.”

by DAVID BELL

PLANS for a permanent privately-operated food kiosk in a Hyde Park storage shed will go out to the court of public opinion.

Vincent councillors unanimously voted in favour of going out for public comment at the October 20 meeting, with the kiosk expected to help “activate” the park. 

Mayor Emma Cole said after the decision: “The idea of a kiosk in Hyde Park has been floated with our community in the past.

“We’ve since invited food trucks into Hyde Park, which has been well received, but thought the timing was right to see if a bricks and mortar kiosk may be a better long-term solution.

“We want to know whether people would welcome a kiosk and if they might like to see this in addition to, or as an alternative to, food trucks.”

The consultation will be a while off and the idea isn’t scheduled for a council vote until April. People will also be asked if they’d prefer healthy food options at the kiosk an at food trucks, in line with council’s new “Healthy Vincent” policy. 

Meanwhile Bayswater council has this week canned a plan for a proposed cafe wanting to open at Riverside Gardens and buy out competing food trucks. 

Bootlegger Coffee Co, a mobile coffee vendor, petitioned the council to let them set 

up a sea container cafe at the gardens for a year-long trial; the company wanted the right to choose other trucks which didn’t sell competing products. 

At their October briefing Bayswater councillors heard passionate pleas against the plan from four mobile food vendors who operate at Riverside Gardens. The vendors said they were already doing it tough and could go out of business if they couldn’t trade freely there.

Councillors resolved not to progress the exclusive permit-buying cafe plan, but will tentatively investigate other options for leasing out a kiosk there in the future. The idea’s been floating around for more than 10 years.

by DAVID BELL

A MILLION dollar plan is in the works to help rid the trio of sickly lakes on Maylands Peninsula of their plague-like midges.

Brearley, Bungana and the Brickworks lakes have abysmal water quality. Low oxygen levels and high  phosphorous contamination from storm water runoff, fertilisers and bird poo have led to persistent algal blooms. 

Bayswater council has deployed anti-midge measures including solar-powered midge traps, but there’s so many bugs they’ve starting jamming up their fans. 

After receiving a consultant report on the state of the lakes Bayswater council will now install mechanical mixers to de-stratify lakes Brearley and Bungana. The lakes are human-made and their design means the deep and shallow waters don’t mix, so the lower levels don’t get oxygenated and the sediment releases even more nutrients for algae to feast on. 

The expert report recommended the council hold off on more dredging until the benefits can be proven, as it hasn’t conclusively helped the water quality so far. But council decided Brearley will get “selective dredging” soon to scrape out the prime midge breeding zone.  

Friends of Maylands Lakes chair Geoff Trott told Bayswater council the group supports the overall plan, and they reckon the Bungana dredging had helped with midges there. 

“After a brief winter respite we are already in the grip of plague levels of midges despite the City of Bayswater’s best efforts to alleviate the problem,” Mr Trott said at October’s council briefing. 

“Lake Bungana residents were also plagued by midges the summer before last but have been virtually midge free since the dredging of that lake. It’s not done any harm to the lake as some were concerned it may.”

The dredging has to go out to tender and might take a few months to get started. 

As the measures are rolled out, a fauna study will keep an eye on the health of turtles, frogs and bird life, and continual water sampling will be conducted. It’ll cost $990,000 for the mixers, dredging, water and wildlife monitoring.

Long-term measures include replacing surrounding non-native trees with lake-friendly local ones, replacing grass with sedges, creating rain gardens and “living streams” in the upstream tributaries to filter out nutrients, and continuing the campaign to reduce nearby fertiliser use.

by DAVID BELL

A RIVERSIDE footpath at JH Abrahams Reserve will stay fenced off for more than a year as Perth council waits on state approvals and funding to fix severe erosion.

In January the council fenced the area off after investigations found erosion along the entire 423m of riverwall had undermined the footpath’s structural integrity.

The reserve’s just south of UWA and Perth council inherited it from Subiaco as part of a July 2016 boundary changes. One month before the handover Subiaco received an engineer’s report warning them the wall was suffering from the river bed being eroded and predicting it’d cost about $2 million in maintenance over the next 25 years, ahead of an “eventual retreat”. 

Works on river walls need approval from two state government departments (both planning and biodiversity departments) due to environmental concerns and the river being a heritage site.

The council’s applied for a biodiversity department grant to subsidise the costs and they’ll know the outcome by November, but working around tides and weather, the fixes might not be done until May 2021. 

The spot’s named for Joseph Abrahams who was Subiaco mayor for 25 years from 1949 to 1974.

Costly catch

It’s been a costly handover for Perth, having already given Subiaco a $500,000 “ex gratia” payment to settle who had rights to the reserve land.

The family trust that donated the land to Subiaco included the condition that it be used “for the use and enjoyment of all time, of all persons within the municipality of Subiaco”.  Perth having the land was in breach of that trust, so it proposed a “joint trust” with Subiaco back in 2017.

Subi was still miffed about the boundary change and sent a $500,000 invoice to Perth to cover transition costs such as staff redundancies. 

Perth binned the invoice, but got backed into a corner when Subi pressed the issue as a condition of negotiating the trust.

Eventually local government minister David Templemen had to step in and Perth agreed to pay the $500,000 transfer in December 2017.

PUPPY raisers are needed to look after baby guide dogs until they’re big enough to be helpful.

Greens upper house MP Alison Xamon said “there’s a huge waiting list of people who are needing guide dogs. There’s a bunch of barriers, and one of the barriers is they don’t have enough puppy fosterers”. 

Ms Xamon is Greens spokesperson for disability, and has a family member who’s been diagnosed with a rare and incurable condition that will lead to blindness. Last week she hosted Guide Dogs WA at Parliament House for an event to raise awareness about the shortage.

Training

Raisers look after the puppies from about eight weeks and are usually with them for 12 to 18 months. Once they’re big enough they then go on to a volunteer boarder for the six to 12 months they attend training five days a week at Guide Dogs WA. 

Guide Dogs WA puppy raising coordinator Leonora Flower handles about 20 dogs and their raisers; linking up people with a pooch based on its temperament and the home environment.

“We want a wide variety of different home environments. If there’s children in the home, the dog learns about children and has exposure to busy life,” she said.

“We need our dogs to go out and have exposures,” Ms Flower says. “Apart from regular obedience training – which the majority of pet owners try to achieve with their dogs – there is an added element of socialisation. 

“Public transport, shopping centres, anywhere someone could go who’s visually impaired or who has autism and that’s not necessarily a dog-friendly place.”

The pups-in-training have the medallion and orange jacket, and part of the raising process is educating people on where the dogs can go.

Ms Xamon says “it is important that people remember that guide dogs are allowed by law to go anywhere that their people go. It is also important that we have a better understanding of the protocols around how to interact with guide dogs, such as if they are wearing a harness, do not touch them, because they are clearly working, and certainly do not try to distract them.”

They cost about $50,000 each to raise. Some of them don’t have the temperament to be guide dogs, but can work as autism assistance dogs or companion animals.

Ideal puppy carers have a lot of free time and a secure home and yard. There’s regular training sessions and all the bedding, food, toys, collars and vet costs are covered by Guide Dogs WA.

You don’t need to have experience with dogs to be a carer: Sometimes a blank slate is the best starting point for Guide Dogs WA to teach people without any preconceived dog-raising notions. 

Get in touch via 9311 8208 or http://www.guidedogswa.com.au

JUSTINE BARSLEY has been caring for guide dog puppies for six years.

For her, it’s become a hobby and mental health booster, and provides exercise and a sense of purpose. It is a full on task though: Ms Barsley runs a business from home in North Perth so has flexibility and time to give the puppies the care and training they need.

“People ask ‘how much training is there?’ and actually everything is training, from when they wake up and get out of bed and then you take them outside to toilet.”

She says along with all the usual dog training, raising a guide dog puppy means making sure never to drop food so they don’t learn scavenging, keeping them off furniture, teaching them good walking on a lead and to not get distracted by other dogs. They also have to learn to poo or wee in the yard with a vocal command, getting it out before they go on walks.

“They need to toilet before they go for a walk, because that can be difficult for a visually impaired person,” Ms Barsley tells us. “You don’t want the dog pooing in Coles.”

Apart from extra training and exposure to many environments, the dogs are like a pet. Ms Barsley is currently raising Vicki, and “when we’re at home we usually sit on the floor with the dog and have a cuddle at night and she’s treated just like a pet there, there’s lots of cuddles and fun and games”.

When it comes time to hand the dog back, Ms Barsley says “you go into it knowing they’re like your foster child and you do have to give them back, but even after six puppies I still bawl my eyes out”.

But she says “it gives me a purpose… you know that your dog is then going to go on and help someone else”.