VINCENT council has cancelled plans for protected bike lanes on Carr Street because of fears the impact of Coronavirus will be too big a hit on its budget.
Instead the council will fix up the existing painted lanes, despite a staff report saying they no longer complied with the WA transport department’s guidelines.
The planned $300,000 Bike Plan Network upgrade was to be half-funded by the department and also involves traffic calming on Florence Street, which will go ahead as planned.
It was to have improved east-west connectivity and access to Beatty Park, which this week was closed by the council following advice from the McGowan government about slowing the spread of Coronavirus.
The cancellation is an unlikely win for many of Carr Street’s residents; the project was recommended for approval at Tuesday’s meeting despite a clear majority opposing it
Vincent sent out 1454 letters to residents, businesses and land owners alerting them to the plans, receiving 34 in return.
Of those, 56 per cent opposed the Carr Street bike lanes, while just 32 per cent supported the plan. Some suggested the council merely tizz up the existing bike lanes.
And in a reverse of Kevin Costner’s “build it and they will come” mantra, the staffers said if they got rid of the parking bays, fewer people would turn up looking for them after a few months, easing any demand.
ANOTHER giant digital advertising sign has been knocked back by Vincent council, with city planners saying it could lead to accidents on Graeme Farmer Freeway.
The council has long tried to keep the lid on the visual clutter of billboards, and a big 20×8 metre screen above the four-storey office block at 12 Newcastle Street was definitely a step too far, even though the owners tried to soften the bid with a rooftop terrace.
“The proposed signage would require motorists to look up, away from the road to view the sign when travelling westbound along Graham Farmer Freeway and southbound along Lord Street,” a planner’s report to the council noted.
“The size, scale, digital nature and visual prominence of the sign could be distracting to motorists and cause threat to public safety or health.”
• Vincent council has knocked back this giant billboard.
Perth council also got to have a crack at the sign, given its border starts just across the road, and it was likewise unimpressed by the size, while Main Roads said it failed its “turbulence zone” policy and was “above the critical crash threshold”.
After a less-than-enthusiastic response from the council’s design panel, which said its advice appeared to have been “misinterpreted”, applicant Adbrands Media appointed Mackay Urbandesign to help out.
“Digital signage is now a thing in Perth,” Mackay said in a presentation on its revamped design, while noting the council’s anti-sign policy was nearly 20 years old.
Mackay poured scorn on old-fashioned billboards as a bit tacky, saying digital signs deliver better streetscapes by moving them away from the pedestrian zone and integrating them with the building.
“A sign of the times – digital signage is a component of the world’s most popular and dynamic places,” it argued.
GROUND’S been broken on the new science and tech facilities at Mount Lawley Senior High School.
To watch over the first shovel loads, the school’s therapy dog Khyzer joined premier Mark McGowan, education minister Sue Ellery, Mount Lawley MP Simon Millman and WW II veteran Arthur Leggett OAM (he’s had a long association with the school, giving their Anzac addresses for years and the library’s named after him).
• Therapy dog Khyzer with WA premier Mark McGowan, Mount Lawley MP Simon Millman, education minister Sue Ellery and WW II veteran Arthur Leggett OAM.
The new building houses two science labs, an engineering workshop and a mechatronics studio with two classrooms, where pupils can design, build and program robots.
The upgrades were part of an election pledge, and the $4 million put aside in the 2017 budget.
The classrooms are scheduled to be open for the 2021 school year.
DOSA is to Indians what bacon and eggs are to the English – breakfast.
Not all Indian restaurants serve dosa after 11am, so I was delighted that Mela Sweets and Eats was serving my all time favourite masala version ($16) for lunch.
My mouth watered as the enormous pancake was placed before me; the glorious coriander and curry leaf aromas wafting in a tantalising cloud of steam.
The paper-thin lentil and rice flour pancake was crispy with a pleasant, not-too-spicy potato filling.
Mela is sanskrit for festival or gathering, and this Mela certainly had a large gathering of Indian diners tucking into their thali (a small platter of mixed dishes).
Chilli punch
The restaurant does vegetarian ($19.99) and meat ($22.99) thali, and unusually a seafood one ($25.99).
With a long day ahead of me, takeaway for dinner seemed a good idea, so I ordered a fish masala ($27), a dum aloo ($15.99) and a garlic naan ($5).
Gobi aloo is my usual go-to vegetable dish, but the dum aloo was a pleasant surprise.
Big chunks of soft potato were smothered in a rich and creamy cashew curry.
The fish masala was cooked with onions, capsicums and tomato, and was a hit in more ways than one – the chilli punch bringing tears to my eyes – but it was so delicious we couldn’t stop eating. The chewy naan was perfect for mopping up any remaining sauce, and there was enough left overs for lunch the next day.
Mela’s Indian sweets are made in-house with real milk, and the eatery supplies a number of Indian restaurants around Perth.
Mela has been the official caterer for the Indian consulate in Perth for the past six years, and is the only approved Indian caterer at government house.
by JENNY D’ANGER
Mela Sweets and Eats 428 William Street, Northbridge
THREE diverse video exhibitions create a strange, alternate reality at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts.
In Chalkroom, the white gallery walls have been transformed into giant blackboards by American artist/musician Laurie Anderson and Taiwanese media artist Hsin-Chien Huang.
Viewers were set to don virtual reality headsets, but that element of the exhibition has been dropped because of Coronavirus.
Havelock Stevens’ video Let’s Groove is a self-portrait looking back at her teenage-self listening to funk and disco, while learning to play the drums.
• Let’s Groove
“It was unusual for a teenage girl to be drumming at that time, so this work is about the artist being comfortable in that role and acknowledging the uncertainty she felt as at teenager,” curator Charlotte Hickson says.
Another of Stevens’ videos Ghost Class, was filmed in a plane “graveyard”.
“It’s a spontaneous composition performed in the carcass of a passenger plane during dusk in a desert boneyard,” Ms Hickson says.
“She simultaneously embraces and releases trauma and triumphs that have shaped a sense of the world and her place in it.”
Jacky Connolly’s Hudson Valley Ruins is a film produced entirely in the computer game Sims 3, with a complete narrative and cast of characters.
• Hudson Valley Ruins
The film follows the two young women navigating the banal, tense and quietly disturbing world of suburban, upstate New York.
The connection between Hudson Valley Ruins and Chalkroom is interesting,” Ms Hickson says.
“Both artists are interested in storytelling and how we receive and store information, but they approach this in very different ways. Being artists of different generations, they have very different approaches to the internet and virtual spaces.”
• Chalkroom
In 1995, Anderson described browsing the fledgling internet as an abstracted and disembodied experience, where you float freely and engage in text and dialogue, disconnected from the physical form.
“In a way, Chalkroom can be understood as a version of this experience,” Ms Hickson says.
“Whereas Jack Connolly grew up understanding the internet as a space that you could manipulate, where you could build entire worlds and create new bodies and character in the form of avatars.”
The free exhibitions are on at PICA, James Street Northbridge until April 19.
A CARR STREET resident says Vincent council hid the fact 19 car parking bays are to be removed to make way for a bike path upgrade.
In November last year the council sent a letter to 615 residents and businesses extolling the plan to add protected bike lanes to Carr Street, later sending a second round to non-resident owners who complained of being left out.
It only got 34 responses, but Lucy Booth reckons more people would have lodged objections if the council had been upfront about the loss of 19 of the 73 parking bays on their busy stretch of the street.
• Residents Vicki Sorrenson, Lucy Booth and Wally Fryer feel let down by Vincent council’s consultation. Photo by David Bell
Impact
To learn about the disappearing bays, a recipient had to type out a URL included in the letter to go to the council’s website.
“This cannot be called consultation,” Ms Booth says. “I am required to consult with employees as part of my professional work. This requirement includes explaining to people the impact of any changes. The council did not meet this simple requirement in their consultation.”
Ms Booth said the map on the website, with “bikes the size of ants” was so tiny it was still unclear which bays would be removed.
“It is insulting. They have the technology and funds to create accurate maps of the impact if they wanted to.”
A staff report to the council’s March 17 meeting says the $300,000 protected bike lane barriers will be safer for cyclists than the existing painted line, and will improve the east-west bike network.
The report also suggests pushing ahead because $150,000 is from a WA Department of Transport grant with a June 2020 deadline.
The staff report says losing the funding may “negatively impact on future funding opportunities”.
The council’s latest survey shows 57 per cent of the car bays on Carr Street between Florence and Charles Streets are used in the evening, but they’re packed on weekends.
Squishier
Between Charles and Fitzgerald Streets it’s much squishier; evening occupancy is about 85 per cent, and other times of day aren’t much better.
At the March 10 councillor briefing, Cr Josh Topelberg asked staff: “Did we ever get to the bottom of the 615 letters that only got received by a few people?”
A council officer answered: “I can’t explain why some people didn’t receive them, but we did print and faithfully deliver the 600-and-something outlined in the report.”
Mayor Emma Cole asked several questions on notice, including wanting to know how many residents rely on on-street parking, and asking staff to look at how the council’s parking philosophy aligned with the bay occupancy rates.
Disclosure: This bike-riding reporter lives within the consultation zone, and usually reads council mail pretty carefully on the hunt for stories, and does not have any memory of receiving this letter.
FIVE sell-out sessions out of seven proves people want to see more films from their own backyard, WA Made Film Festival director Matthew Eeles says.
In the weeks leading up to the inaugural festival Mr Eeles had been nervous about whether he could fill seats at all seven sessions, but there’s been such massive demand some screenings have been moved to bigger cinemas.
• A scene from The Light: ECU graduate Zack Inglis wrote and directed this dark small town tale.
Mr Eeles says he and festival coordinator Jasmine Leivers are “thrilled by the incredible support the WA filmmaking community and the general public have thrown behind the WA Made Film Festival.
“With this festival, our aim was to introduce local filmgoers to homegrown films made right here in our own backyard.”
Mr Eeles, who founded Cinema Australia and has a day job as production manager at the Perth Voice, says even after two years of planning, he and Ms Leivers were prepared to declare the festival a success if just one session sold out.
• Kia Kaha, about the modern day Maori warrior who declared war on his depression, screens at the free Northbridge Piazza.
“To sell out five sessions, with others selling quick, is a dream, not just for the festival but for the entire WA filmmaking community,” he said.
There’s only tickets left for two ticketed sessions: the doco Hunter: For the Record, the story of Perth hip hop legend Robert Hunter’s final days before dying from cancer in 2011, and ECU grad Zack Inglis film The Light, about a small town’s dark past and a mysterious criminal group (only 8 tickets are left.
There’s also a free screening at Northbridge Piazza of five documentaries, including Kia Kaha, the story of proud Maori man Leon Ruri who declared war on his suicidal thoughts, founding Haka for Life and using the war dance to bolster his mental health. It’s on Saturday March 14 at 7.15pm.
Details of cinema shifts for the overly popular sessions that had to be moved to bigger rooms will be up at facebook.com/wamadefilmfestival
THE impact on local traders from the Coronavirus pandemic has been varied, but with big conferences and the HBF Run for a Reason being cancelled, it’s starting to get awfully close to home.
A city department store worker reported the big shops are noticeably quieter the past couple of weeks, but people still appear to be going out for essentials.
Pubs, the North Perth pool hall, and liquor stores were pretty well populated over the weekend.
There have been a couple of Covid-related cancellations which affect local contractors:
The Australasian insurance industry’s Steadfast Convention has been cancelled. It was scheduled to bring 2,000 delegates including keynote speaker Julie Bishop to the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre from March 22 to 24.
Comedian Russell Brand cancelled his sold-out March 9 Perth Concert Hall show, citing concerns about a woman who attended a WASO show there after being tested for Covid-19. PCH says the place has since been fully cleaned and there’s no risk.
Perth Glory has postponed its March 18 match at Perth Oval against South Korea’s Ulsan Hyundai in the Asian Champions League because of travel restrictions.
The AFL has announced if public gatherings are banned then matches will go ahead without any spectators, the way GWS Giants games are currently played.
The AMAWA has told the state government to consider pre-emptive school closures to help slow the spread of the virus.
President Andrew Miller has said tens of thousands of people could need admission to hospital during the course of the virus, with 10 per cent of those affected needing intensive care.
Education minister Sue Ellery said pre-emptive school closures weren’t currently being considered.
UPDATE: The St Patrick’s Day festivities planned for March 14 have also been cancelled.
Vincent council and the St Patrick’s Day WA Committee announced the joint decision in a press release issued March 13.
Mayor Emma Cole says “We have been long-time supporters of the St Patrick’s Day Festival and we look forward to continuing our support in the future.
“We would like to acknowledge that the festival is a massive undertaking for a voluntary community group, who have worked really hard on the event over the past 12 months.
“We want to say an enormous thank you to St Patrick’s Day WA Inc. for all of their efforts and for their understanding and support of this decision.
“We hope all festival sponsors will continue to support this event this year and in the future.”
SPD WA Inc chair Olan Healy says “We know people will be disappointed but next year we will bounce back bigger and better.
“We believe it is in the best interest of the community to cancel given current concerns around mass gatherings.”
ROYAL Perth Hospital opened one of three Covid-19 testing clinics on March 10, and lines soon formed as people arrived for testing.
Anyone with fever and respiratory symptoms (cough, sore throat) and who’s returned from overseas travel in the last 14 days, or has had contact with a confirmed Covid-19 case ought attend the clinic for screening.
On Tuesday the first patients were being met outside and asked a few questions to determine if they needed screening.
After the test, people who are well enough are being asked to isolate at home until the results come back. Confirmed cases of Covid-19 will be asked to stay at home if they don’t require hospitalisation.
• No time for fancy font selection, this is fresh from the signmakers: The Covid-19 clinic at RPH in Ainsley House.
Australian Medical Association WA president Andrew Miller described the clinics as having come four weeks too late and decried the lack of resources given to smaller GP practices who’d been left handling cases.
The RPH clinic is in Ainsley House, 48 Murray Street (please do not wander into the emergency room or the rest of the hospital), and the other clinics are at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital’s C Block, and Fiona Stanley’s Bedbrook Row (north-east end of the hospital). They’re open 8am to 8pm daily.
By Wednesday noon the queues were much smaller with only a couple of people lining up. The arrivals on day two also benefited from privacy screens that’d been erected, after the first day arrivals sat in full view while awaiting their interview.
The criteria for testing may be further updated, details at healthywa.wa.gov.au, or on the coronavirus hotline 1800 020 080.
AMID debate over Bayswater council’s heritage list roll-out, one veteran theatre lover couldn’t be happier to see Maylands’ Lyric Theatre finally given protection.
Former Maylands local Greg Lynch has had an illustrious career in film, and it all started watching the flicks at the Lyric back in the 1940s.
Now 79 and living in Victoria, he’d been urging Bayswater council to give the old theatre some formal heritage protection, having watched iconic venues like The Ambassadors disappear over the years.
He wrote a report on the architectural value of the 1923 building, created a mockup image of what its interior would have looked like from his memories, and referred the city to his written history of the place at cinematreasures.org
• The old Lyric Theatre.
It has now been entered onto the council’s heritage list with a “Category 2” ranking, stating its history is important to the locality, it has a “high degree” of authenticity and “any alterations or extensions should reinforce the significance of the place”.
Mr Lynch says it’s “absolutely wonderful” to see it listed.
His love of cinema saw him gravitate to the industry at age 14. He left school and worked for Howard Keast, repairing film for 20th Century Fox. He’s worked across the country as an assistant projectionist, in film distribution, production and direction, for companies like Universal Pictures, United Artists, and then his own ventures.
He recalls back in the 40s and 50s in Maylands watching movies like Forever Amber and The Story of Three Loves (the film where actor Kirk Douglas met one of his many loves, Pier Angeli).
• Greg Lynch has been campaigning from interstate to have the Lyric Theatre listed.
“I was a regular at the Roxy [Theatre] and a regular at the Lyric…It stayed very important to me.”
His next goal is to track down a photo of the interior from its days as a theatre. “I’ve combed the archives, I’ve gone to the historical societies.”
South ward councillor Elli Petersen-Pik welcomed the listing, having been keen on getting it heritage-protected since before he was on council. In April 2017 he’d encouraged people to submit requests for its listing when the heritage list was being reviewed saying “it would definitely be a huge loss of historical interest and character if this building (and its façade) were ever demolished”.
The building is currently owned by Australian Development Capital which purchased it in mid-2019.
ADC’s Rod Hamersley says there’s no firm plans for the site at the moment.
ADC also owns the Perth Girls School site and he says “certainly if you look at some of our other projects, we see the heritage aspect as being a value-add to whatever project we do. We like the heritage value of our asset, and we think it provides good character to the future development of that site”.
A consultation event is planned in the coming weeks and he says “it’s an opportunity to ask the community what they want to see… we think retaining the theatre and representing it in a more contemporary way might be an opportunity we’d look into”.
Perth Voice Interactive 