Perth Voice Interactive

A LEEDERVILLE florist is refusing to sell flowers for Melbourne Cup celebrations over animal cruelty concerns.

Veronika Muller announced the ban on The Posy Factory’s Facebook page in September, noting “122 horses died on Australian race tracks between August 2018 and July 2019”.

Now in her second year of business, Ms Muller says Cup Day is normally huge for florists, who sell arrangements for corporate gigs and flowers for cup day outfits. 

”It just wouldn’t sit right with me.

“There’s plenty of other things to make money out of,” Ms Muller told the Voice.

 “There is plenty of other occasions which don’t harm animals; which don’t harm something that can’t protect itself,” she says.

Entertainment

“I just hate animal cruelty. Animals aren’t for entertainment.

“It’s not just that they die in the races … they die after the races, they go off and get slaughtered.”

The ABC’s current affairs program 7.30 exposed the brutal aftermath of the racing industry earlier this month, focussing on a Queensland abattoir which slaughtered racehorses.

Covert cameras caught abattoir staff kicking, beating and yelling at the former racehorses just before they were slaughtered.

Racing Australia responded to the report with a statement saying: “Racing Australia shares the outrage at the appalling images of the gross mistreatment of horses revealed in the program.”

by ALEX MURFETT

POISON is suspected in the killing of 16 newly planted trees in Berringa Park on the Maylands riverfront.

Bayswater council CEO Andrew Brien says the trees were planted to provide shade and and create a wildlife habitat.

The council plants about 1000 trees a year to stave off the Perth-wide decline in tree canopy. 

“Trees are a valuable asset to the whole of our community and the city will not tolerate senseless acts of eco vandalism,” Mr Brien said.

The council has had an independent arborist take a look at the trees, who found their condition pointed to poisoning and there was little hope they could be saved. 

Under the council’s Urban Tree Policy a poisoned tree earns the neighbourhood a big shaming sign until a replacement is grown. 

Greg Pound from Berringa Park Friends Group says he’s “very disappointed” at the poisonings.

“The purpose of our group is to remove weeds and revegetate, so we’re not really that keen on people going along and killing trees, that’s for sure.”

Maylands MP Lisa Baker says her office phone’s been ringing hot with constituents complaining about the poisonings.

“The new Berringa Park Friends Group is doing fabulous work down at the park – this is very disappointing,” she said.

“The actions of this person or group shows appalling ignorance.”

Mr Pound says so far they’ve got through weeding about 5000sqm of Berringa, removing invasive pepper trees which strangle out native plants.

They have busy bees the third Sunday of every month. The next one’s on November 17 at 8.30am and people from outside the area are welcome if you’re keen to help.

“People come down and really get a bit of a dose of satisfaction out of it,” Mr Pound said.

“They’re not all nearby neighbours, some come from out of the area, some are in the direct vicinity and care about the river, but the overwhelming drive for the group is to actually get the environment back to where it needs to be.”

Their work moves along the river so the next weeding and planting spot gets listed at the Berringa Park Friends Group Facebook page.

by DAVID BELL

A TWO-YEAR Airbnb dispute has been settled, with the State Administrative Tribunal telling a Perth homeowner it’s too noisy to rent out his cottage. 

Boaz Kogon lives overseas and started advertising his 8 Moir Street cottage on WA short-term rental site Abode BNB in 2017.

Vincent council soon found out and insisted he put in a retrospective application, but that was knocked back over neighbours’ concerns about noise, parking and traffic (“Airbnb battle”, Voice, April 6, 2019).

Mr Kogon appealed to the SAT, but it ruled in favour of the council on October 2, noting the “immediate vicinity is purely residential”. 

The Moir and Brookman Street precinct is a heritage listed pocket of housing that’s remained intact across 120 years as businesses sprung up around it.

Two weeks after the SAT ruling, councillors allowed another house in the same precinct to start short-term renting on a very limited basis.

Cr Dan Loden said at the October 15 council meeting 2 Brookman Street differed from Mr Kogon’s because it had commercial developments on two sides.

“It is very challenging because it’s a question of scope creep … if this is approved, does it then cascade down [the street], Cr Loden pondered. 

Cr Jimmy Murphy, at his final meeting before retiring, said it was valid for neighbours to want permanent residents who were a part of the community and not “a hotel for fly-by-night guests”.

“I also do get that a homeowner who wants to go on holidays for six weeks a year does have the liberty and the right, in my view, to be able to have guests come and stay in that home and be remunerated for that, which I believe was the original intent of Airbnb. 

“And I think it’s probably, for want of a better word, taking the piss now, but I think the original idea was for that very need.”

After some debate councillors settled on allowing the owner to rent it out for a total of 10 weeks a year, and the owner had to provide the council with records of all bookings (so they can tell if any extra noise is due to that use). 

The approval lasts for 18 months.

by DAVID BELL

FILMMAKERS Alison James and Brooke Tia Silcox are calling on some hometown support to get their short film Judas Collar up for the 2020 Oscars. 

The pair, who split their time between Perth and Hollywood, will be releasing a free online version of Judas Collar from this Monday in a bid to rack up views, which helps their chances in the Oscars.

The film is based on the real-life practice of camel culling, where one animal is fitted with a satellite tracking collar and released into the outback. 

They’re social animals who can form group bonds outside their family, and soon seek out a new herd. 

The collar gives away the position, the herd is tracked and shot from a helicopter, then the Judas camel wanders off to find another group. 

All-camel cast

After hearing of the practice, James quit her full time job and started writing Judas Collar, a 15-minute film with an all-camel cast. 

“That a camel might become self-aware and sentence itself to a life of solitude for the betterment of its kind is such an incredible display of self-sacrifice that for me it transcends words,” says James.

“As an audience, we can see that the Judas will only be a danger to the herd until the battery on her collar runs out – and yet she will never know that it is safe to return.”

“To unwittingly cause pain to those you love most until you decide to live a life of loneliness is one of the saddest stories I have ever heard. And yet it’s a story that is deeply and tragically human.

“Sometimes we retreat to save the herd”. 

The Voice’s production man Matt Eeles (who also runs Cinema Australia) calls it “the best Australian short film of the year” and “a heartbreaking piece of visual, no-dialogue cinema which will leave viewers stunned”. 

Judas Collar qualified for a potential Oscars nomination twice over, by winning awards at the Austin Film Festival in Texas and the St Kilda Film Festival.

James and Silcox are hoping that a bit of buzz around the film will catch the eye of some of the 8000 Academy Award members who vote on eligible films to produce the shortlist. Big film companies tend to shower them with freebies and lobby them directly, while spending millions of dollars advertising their films.

James and Silcox are urging hometownies to view Judas Collar between November 4 to 14 via any of the big social media platforms or at judascollar.com

BAYSWATER council staff have taken out two state awards for water conservation.

The Australian Water Association’s WA Water Awards recognise “innovation and excellence in delivery of water projects”. 

Bayswater’s sustainability and environment manager Jeremy Maher won the senior award for WA and was acknowledged for his work protecting wetlands, advocating sustainable urban design, and mentoring young water professionals. 

The Young Water Professional award went to catchment management officer Rebecca Ferguson, who was noted for working on the remediation plan of Eric Singleton Bird Sanctuary and transforming old drains into “living stream” wetlands in Morley.

“I am incredibly humbled by this award,” Mr Maher said.

“The work my team and I undertake directly improves the water systems within the city and the liveability of the area for our community.”

The pair are up for the national awards at Adelaide’s “Ozwater” 2020. 

NO, it wasn’t a rigged election; we just stuffed up our own vote count in last week’s story about Mark Irwin’s historic win in Stirling’s first popular vote (“Mr Popular,” Voice, October 26).

Mr Irwin was re-elected with 14,903 votes (39 per cent) with Cr Elizabeth Re second on 8775 votes (23 per cent). We also inadvertently attributed the story to David Bell, which wasn’t the case.

THE fate of two old buildings that have divided community opinion in Bayswater will be decided on November 5 – Guy Fawkes Night. 

Nearly 500 years after the Gunpowder Plotters attempted to obliterate the British House of Lords, Bayswater councillors will decide whether to allow the demolition of 9 and 11 King William Street.

The owner, Yolk Property, does not have immediate plans to replace the buildings, as a previous approval for apartments (which had to retain some of the historic facade) has now expired.

Planning staff at Bayswater say the developer now wants a “cleared and unconstrained” site prior to redevelopment.

But they’ve recommend councillors refuse the demolition, in part because of the “undue impact on the amenity of the area by virtue of the loss of a continuous streetscape, social and historic values and traditional character of the Bayswater town centre”.

The planners are in a race against time: The state government is soon taking over planning control of the area for a Metronet-related upgrade of the train station with plans to “maximise development opportunities”.

The council will have to quickly finish its updated Inventory of Heritage Places which has gone back to the planners after consultation. The draft declared Bayswater town centre a “heritage area” and put both buildings into a classification that gives them at least some legislative protection. 

It’s not a hard block to a bulldozer, but it would mean a developer has to prove there’s no way to build on the site without demolishing, and in King William Street case Bayswater staff say there’s plenty of space behind the buildings (578sqm).

Maylands town centre would also be included as a heritage area if the draft inventory is approved. 

For demolition …

‘The buildings hold no importance from a heritage or community perspective, and contribute little to the Bayswater town site. Simply being an old building does not equal heritage value’

… and against

‘Both buildings are over 100 years old and link back to the … local cultural heritage of a farming district, master builders and settlers, showing how everyday working people lived.

by DAVID BELL

AFTER two years of battlefield promotions and a rotating cast of acting directors, Perth council will have its full executive line-up come November 4. 

At the city’s October 29 meeting chair commissioner Andrew Hammond announced new planning general manager Jayson Miragliotta would start Monday. 

CEO Murray Jorgensen has replaced five directors with four general managers, who’ll be in charge of “alliances” in an effort to get the heads of departments working together.

On the final day of public hearings at the state inquiry into the city, Cmmr Hammond said the city was “an organisation under siege” when he started on March 2 last year, with stressed staff unable to focus on customer service because of the infighting and rivalries.

Senior staff were frosty towards commissioners, he said.

Frosty

“Let’s say we didn’t walk into a congenial or productive working relationship. There was going to need to be some quite significant changes if we were going to be able to change that environment.”

Mr Jorgensen told the inquiry consultants who’d assessed the city’s “business excellence” rating put it as one of the lowest they’d encountered in Australia.

“It was a figure that was below 200 out of 1000 points,” Mr Jorgensen said.

At one time the city had two directors stretched across five roles, but Mr Jorgensen said he expected to be able to push on with his reform program now a full executive had been chosen.

Mr Miragliotta joins ex-Peppermint Grove CEO Anne Banks-McAllister (GM of community development), former Denmark shire clerk Bill Parker (GM of corporate services), and Chris Kopec (GM of infrastructure and operations, after being promoted from senior project manager).

Mr Miragliotta is an urban planner with 28 years experience across Perth, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. He formerly ran Fremantle council’s planning department.

by DAVID BELL

A NEW contemporary dance offering aims to keep our local dancers in Perth instead of flying off to pursue their career over east or internationally.

Dance and choreography outfit Strut Dance has teamed up with the State Theatre Centre to hold And Then Some, a showcase of young dancers with an aim to make it an annual offering on the arts calendar. 

Strut director Paul Selwyn-Norton says; “previously WA lost many fine artists to interstate and overseas contracts, but we see seasons such as And Then Some as the additional offering that can give independent creatives further outlets, within a fully professional environment, to hone their craft.”

Ochre

Back in late August, Perth lost the indigenous Ochre Contemporary Dance Company when it suddenly closed its doors.

Despite that setback, Mr Selwyn-Norton says dancers are returning to WA, or choosing to move here, to seek available opportunities.

“We envision that And Then Some will champion a new presentation platform for independent dance in WA, which is beyond the main dance seasons, and will be especially important for emerging artists,” he said.

The inaugural And Then Some is a double bill of “daring and reckless dance” by two young choreographers Lewis Major and Scott Ewen. 

It runs November 13 to 16 at Studio Underground at the State Theatre Centre, tickets via tickets.ptt.wa.gov.au