Perth Voice Interactive

A POSSE of grannies is planning to ambush premier Mark McGowan outside WA parliament on November 5 to give him a strict ticking off about logging in WA’s native forests.

Forty of the Old Growth Grannies, as they’ve been tagged, recently blockaded a logging site in Nannup then set up a protest camp outside Mr McGowan’s Rockingham office.

The nannas say they’re worried about leaving their grandkids a stuffed planet and want to show that even at their age it’s not too late to act.

“Every plant and tree is precious to our wellbeing,” said Unice Robinson, who had a message for the premier.

“Please stop logging native forests and clearing our wetlands and bushlands. We must protect these special places now.”

The grans hope to motivate the next generation to join their Parliament protest on November 5 from 9am. Anyone busy on that day can help make tree-shaped placards and costumes to support them on Wednesdays from 6pm at the Boorloo Activist Centre on Aberdeen Street near the McIver Train Station.

Future Bayswater still anxious road design will ‘cut off’ town. ‘Trestle’ aesthetic dropped.

THE proposed Bayswater train station has been re-designed following widespread discontent over the concept plans released mid-year.

The town centre’s advocacy group Future Bayswater delivered a 1024-signature petition to WA parliament in September calling for a redesign to accurately reflect the 2018 sketches Metronet first presented. 

Petition

The petition called for a design “worthy of a piece of community infrastructure that will be the dominant built feature in Bayswater for the next 120 years”.

They wanted “quality design and finishes, escalators, and proper shelter from sun, wind and rain” and opposed a big 10-metre high viaduct running almost a kilometre along Railway Parade and Whatley Crescent. The viaduct remains.

Future Bayswater also opposed the closing of Whatley Crescent to Hamilton Street.

On October 8 transport and planning minister Rita Saffioti announced a new “refined design aesthetic” to reflect local feedback. 

It now has escalators, a cream colour theme that aims to fit into the area, “ribbing finishes” inspired by Perth’s passenger trains, and “wave” shelters with vertical screens to reduce wind. 

FB’s Paul Shanahan said it was heartening that some of the original features from the more popular 2018 sketches had been reinstated, but they’re still concerned about road changes and that big viaduct which he calls “unacceptable and unnecessary”.

“These improvements to the station will encourage more people to use the train and will enhance such an important site in the heart of our town centre,” he says.

“The improvements include the provision of escalators, enhanced surface finishes, a better ground floor interface and improvements to shelters that previously looked like tables from Bunnings.

“Unfortunately, the original slender design from 2018 has not been reinstated, with the large concrete bulkiness of the design still present, though there has been some slight improvements to the appearance of the bulky piers. The shelters, while improved, still will leave some travellers exposed to the elements. 

“While the designs will not deliver the iconic station we all expected with such an important transport development for WA, what is proposed is much improved from the second round of designs released in June 2020 that created such concern in our community. We welcome improvements to the station, but many in our community are still anxious about the design of the local roads around that station that will cut off large sections of the town centre.”

They’re still hopeful Metronet and the state government will keep listening and fix the remaining problems. 

Maylands MP Lisa Baker said “I have a very engaged and educated community who have been active in working with the Government to get the very best outcomes in design and development for our village.

“With the art and landscaping treatments still to come, the McGowan Government is responding to community feedback and I believe the current designs reflect the heritage character of Bayswater.”

The new station design will still need approval from the WA Planning Commission.

By DAVID BELL

A PREVIOUSLY rejected plan for a food kiosk at Hyde Park is back on the agenda.

Vincent council staff have suggested a privately-operated kiosk could operate from the storage room attached to the toilet building near the west end to help activate the park.

Former councillor Dudley Maier submitted a statement to this week’s council briefing reminding them the idea had already been extensively explored and shot down, and said it was “disappointing” this week’s staff report to councillors made no mention of that.

“In July 2014, following community consultation including a robust community workshop, the administration recommended that the concept not be proceeded with,” his statement said. “The item was deferred and never came back to council.

“The driver at the time revolved around activating Hyde Park – probably the most activated community facility in the City.”

The kiosk is proposed to go in the storage shed because the 2003 Hyde Park Conservation Plan says erecting a new building “for a cafe, sporting club, or any other private business” would be forbidden. The Crown Grant that handed the reserve to the old Perth city council required that it be used for recreational purposes only and said no portion of the park should be used for building purposes. 

But the storage building is described as “intrusive” in the conservation plan, so council staff state it wouldn’t have heritage implications to adapt that into a “warm kitchen” that sold coffee and pre-cooked items. A full commercial kitchen would need more infrastructure and may require a section 18 approval under the Aboriginal Heritage Act, which can take years. 

The conservation plan also advises any changes or new uses in the park “should not require regular vehicle access for servicing,” but that guidance is less binding than the crown grant and food trucks have been allowed into Hyde Park for a few years. 

Mr Maier is also critical of the council’s move to discussing items behind closed doors at council “workshops” in recent years, and noted it was also disappointing “this has been discussed at least twice by council without community oversight” at the May and September workshops. 

The kiosk plan is up for discussion at the October 20 meeting, where councillors will consider putting the idea out for public comment.

by DAVID BELL

PERTH CBD’s new uni campuses may end up “a playground for the elite” as a result of sharply rising course fees, warns federal Labor MP Patrick Gorman.

The ink was barely dry on the Perth City Deal paving the way for ECU’s Mount Lawley campus to move into the city, when it was confirmed the Morrison government had negotiated to get higher fees for humanities and law degrees through the Senate. 

On Tuesday October 6 South Australia’s Centre Alliance announced its senators would support the Morrison government’s fee hikes, and starting next year humanities degrees will double in price, while law and commerce degrees will shoot up about a third. Maths, teaching, nursing, and tech degrees will be cheaper, intended to encourage uni-goers into what the government sees as more employable fields in the future.

The Perth City Deal also brings in a tech-based slice of Murdoch campus, but the bulk of ECU’s presence in the city will be WA Academy of Performing Arts, business and law students who will have to pay more. 

“Think of the impact on Perth,” Mr Gorman says. “It’s kind of bizarre that we’ve got this great new Edith Cowan City Campus, but the students that are going to study at WAAPA are going to be paying twice as much as current WAAPA students, so it doesn’t make our universities more accessible, and indeed it makes our universities more of a playground for the elite than a great leveller for Australia.

“Are we going to get a school for the best and the brightest [with] the most merit-based system, or kids having to choose whether they can afford to go? That’s what concerns me.” 

Mr Gorman studied social science at Curtin Uni, costing $12,000 at the time in the early-mid 2000s. Including inflation and the fee hike, the course will cost three times that in 2021.

SA’s Centre Alliance supported the fee change on the basis it’d address what they called a “glut” of law graduates at the same time we’re having to import tech graduates.

By DAVID BELL

THE WA Tourism Council’s been urging people to “Holiday in WA”, but Perth Labor MP John Carey is imploring travellers to go even more local and support city tourism too.

Two city tourism operators recently received state government “tourism business survival grants” aimed at keeping them going during a season without international or interstate tourists. Walking tourers Two Feet & a Heartbeat were funded for $25,000 and bike rickshaw riders Peddle Perth got $15,000, and the peddlers are looking at expanding into Fremantle.

Mr Carey says “they’re both young companies that got hit hard, but now have adapted by catering to locals.

“I would just encourage all locals: If you’re getting that $600 credit [the electricity rebate] and you can afford it, see your city in a new way, whether it’s a small bar tour, Christmas light tours or walking the laneways.” 

KYILLA Primary School marks its 75th anniversary with an open day on October 24 to showcase its history.

There’ll be displays and photos charting the key events, and a year 6 play will explore key moments such as the 1951 crash of a tiger moth plane just metres from the school fence. 

There were plans for a school on the site since 1928, and nearby houses were advertised for sale as being conveniently located to a school that had yet to be built.

In 1941 the growing population of young families in the North Perth renewed the calls for a school, but the raging World War had created shortages of materials and labour, so a plan was hatched to move an existing jarrah school room from Herne Hill.

Perth city council and residents objected as the area had been designated “brick only” and timber buildings were forbidden, and a committed committee of parents finally convinced the education department to build a new school in 1944.

Infants’ school

It opened in February 1945 as “Selkirk Street Infants’ School” with two teachers and 74 students. It quickly expanded with more buildings in 1946, and by then the name “Kyilla” was being used in the press. The name is a bit of a mystery: the state Heritage Council notes the word was well known in the 1930s and 40s because of the “giant 21-seater inter-capital airliner” named Kyilla. 

The plane visited Perth in 1937 to a huge reception at Maylands aerodrome, and a crowd of 5,000 broke down the barriers to get closer to it. There’s also an unconfirmed idea that Kyilla was an Aboriginal word meaning ‘north’. 

The school’s been helped with research by Vincent local history centre’s Susanna Iuliano, and many local and national trends and events imprinted on the school’s history: 

 • 1955 many children were absent in term three due to an outbreak of measles, mumps and chicken pox; 

• 1972 the latrines were replaced with actual toilets; 

• 1974 the school reflected the area’s rich cultural mix, with children of 21 different nationalities attending; 

• 1988 the school adopted the boomerang as its logo and introduced the motto “To See and to Understand”:

• 2015 it became an independent school, and its numbers have grown from 74 students to more than 380 across the kindie, pre-primary and primary grades. 

The open day is on October 24 from 10am to 2pm at 4 Selkirk Street North Perth. 

Former teacher Ruth Leembruggen was in her 20s back in 1956 and is hoping to catch up with some past students.

By DAVID BELL