Perth Voice Interactive

WITH a plague of vacant store fronts dotting the CBD like missing teeth, the McGowan government has poured $200,000 into Activate Perth.

Empty shops can have a death spiral effect for other businesses that are just hanging in, according to Perth MP John Carey, who says the WA government nabbed an idea from Renew Adelaide to fix it.

“What we do know is this; the more vacant shops you have in a street the less it becomes a destination,” Mr Carey said.

“The opposite is true as well; if you encourage new independent small businesses and startups to trial a shopfront, then it’s a great way to activate a street, to create more foot traffic, and create more vibrancy and interest.”

Activate Perth, a not-for-profit set up to revive the city, has been running the Fill This Space project for about 15 months. Its first project was moving young Aboriginal artist Peter Farmer Jr into a studio at an empty shop in Watertown.

It’s a rent-free set up and involves a bit of negotiating to convince landlords it’s worth it to have their buildings occupied and looked after. Activate Perth provides mentoring for new businesses.

AP’s chair Di Bain says they’re thrilled to get the recognition after operating for 18 months “ on the smell of an oily rag”.

The department of premier and cabinet’s funding also unlocks a second $50,000 grant from Perth council.

Ms Bain said the money might help them identify a larger cluster of empty shops where they can make a real difference.

“We’ll be able to helicopter in a whole lot of vibrancy at once, lots of different business in a few spaces all together,” she said.

“That could be a big turnaround project for a run down area.”

There’s a few potential spaces they’re negotiating over at the moment, with one that’s made the maybe-list being the Plaza Arcade which has been troubled by construction woes and vacancies in recent years.

AP is open for new FTS ideas at activateperth.com.au/renew

by DAVID BELL

TEAM Scaffidi might’ve hoped for a friendly face in the CEO’s chair when Martin Mileham was appointed, but the inquiry into Perth council revealed this week the relationship soon soured.

Mr Mileham was appointed acting CEO in January 2016. He’d headed up the city’s planning department, which came under scrutiny with two councillors and a former city director saying it looked like a property part-owned by lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi got “special treatment” which delayed a heritage listing.

But within six months, any notion of a patsy CEO were blown away.

In mid-2016 Ms Scaffidi wanted to hand the keys to the city to bearded Russian adventurer Fedor Konyukhov, who was in town after circumnavigating the globe in a hot air balloon.

Mr Mileham didn’t think he’d done enough for Perth to warrant the honour, and during a tense phone call with the lord mayor he noted she made reference to “the next CEO”.

He was still probationary at the time.

by DAVID BELL

A MURAL of a wolf with exposed breasts and feeding two suckling lads with penises exposed has caused a minor stir on Beaufort Street.

The artwork by muralist Drew Straker is on the side of Cecchi’s Italian restaurant in Inglewood, and depicts a scene from the myth of Rome’s founding.

It was a collaboration between the restaurant and community group Inglewood on Beaufort, with the support of Stirling council.

“Is this art?” former Stirling councillor Paul Collins posted on Facebook along with a photo of the interspecies feeding.

“Perhaps, but Inglewood on Beaufort think two naked boys with exposed genitals sucking on the teat of an unrecognisable animal is just the clean-up our beloved Beaufort Street needs.”

A father of three girls, Mr Collins says the mural is unlikely to draw families to the area.

“I just think there are other, more appropriate Italian-themed art pieces to improve placemaking for the town centre of Inglewood,” Mr Collins said.

“For instance, imagine if the wall was brought to life with an image of the Trevi Fountain. I recall the figures are robed in that sculpture!”

The online commentary’s tended towards favourable, with some saying the artistic nature means the willies are fine, while a few others share Mr Collins’ concerns saying it’s “not one I’ll be posing in front of” or “not impressed”.

It’s a bit of a contrast to the statue of a nude dog and rabbit riding a bike a bit to the south in the Highgate part of Beaufort Street, which arrived in the more liberal part of the strip without controversy.

Inglewood on Beaufort chair Damien Giuduci worked with the council, the store owner and the artist to make the mural happen. He says he hopes kids will find it educational and it’ll make them keen to find out the meaning behind it: “It actually has a pretty cool story, it might spark an interest in mythological stories,” he said.

According to the legend of the founding of Rome, the Capitoline Wolf nourished the abandoned twins Romulus and Remus who would grow up to build the city.

It’s been depicted in many artworks throughout history; the most famous statue in the Capitoline Museum dates back a thousand years. A slightly newer statue features in the foyer of the WA Italian Club on Fitzgerald Street. The icon was proliferated in a big way by Benito Mussolini who saw himself as the “Founder of New Rome,” and he sent many Capitoline Wolf statues to cities around the world as a goodwill gesture.

by DAVID BELL

MAYLANDS Waterland will not reopen this year.

“Maylands Waterland as we know it is gone,” Bayswater councillor Catherine Ehrhardt reported with sadness this week, after councillors voted not to open the crumbling facility for the 2019-20 summer season.

“The city’s not going to be doing the refurbishment.”

She says the Maylands Waterland Working Group which she chairs “is still working through potential options for the site… [but] we’re not going to get an identical facility”.

She and fellow south ward councillor Elli Petersen-Pik had both wanted to keep it open but the council’s search for funding came up short.

“I loved Maylands Waterland. I’ve been going since it was built,” Cr Ehrhardt said.

By not opening it this year the city can shunt $205,800 into a Waterland redevelopment fund, which will bring it up to nearly $2 million.

Quotes for refurbishing Waterland ranged from $3.2m up, and $1.5m of the council’s cash is from its “public open space fund”.

According to state government rules Waterland wouldn’t qualify for that funding because it’s ticketed, bringing in about $214,000 a year which partly offsets the $327,000 running costs.

Cr Petersen-Pik got support for his motion that the council “reaffirms its commitment to redevelop Maylands Waterland as a family friendly water-based park at the Maylands Foreshore Reserve” and that they authorise the CEO to “progress the project in accordance with the timeline presented in the report, aiming for some of the redeveloped facilities to be open to the public by November 2021”.

“I have already received some feedback from quite a lot of residents who are sceptical about the city’s commitment to build a new water park to replace Waterland, and they are very concerned that the closure will be permanent and nothing else will happen on site. This concern was also mentioned in the working group,” Cr Petersen-Pik said.

“This is why I think it’s crucial to stress our intentions and signal to our residents that we are serious about moving forward with the project.”

by DAVID BELL

A NATIONAL Indigenous museum, light rail and permanent housing for homeless people are on a wish list federal Perth Labor MP Patrick Gorman has sent to cities minister Alan Tudge for the “Perth City Deal”.

Mr Tudge was in Perth in August to talk “City Deals,” the federal government’s mechanism to work across three levels of government on 10- to 20-year plans to improve housing, infrastructure and jobs to prepare for a population of 3.2 million by 2050.

In a speech to the Master Builders Australia Conference on August 9, he said the Perth City Deal negotiations started in April 2018 “but it is probably fair to say that we haven’t given it sufficient attention to date.

“Today I want to inject new energy into a reimagined Perth City Deal.”

He said as the population rises Perth “has the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of Melbourne and Sydney.

“In both cities, insufficient infrastructure was built in advance of the population growth.”

Mr Gorman’s penned a letter with five requests:

• A National Indigenous Museum of art, history and culture. He says Perth is the ideal host with many spaces capable of accommodating it, like the Perth council-owned foreshore on Terrace Road which is currently a carpark;

• Light rail, which would “revitalise our city, making it a modern and welcoming city for tourists with the potential to over time connect our greatest tourism assets of Perth Stadium, the Swan River foreshore, Kings Park and eventually our beautiful Indian Ocean beaches”. He noted that soon Perth will be the only mainland state capital without a light rail system;

• A “homeless to home facility”  based on the “Common Ground” model that gives people a permanent space to live rather than transitional housing. Mr Gorman says other capitals benefited from the model, but Perth had missed out. He says he’s confident Perth council “would be able to rapidly approve and provide land for a facility for 150 to 200 people”;

• A major TAFE campus expansion: Mr Gorman says the Leederville, Northbridge and Mount Lawley campuses need major investments, and “there is potential for a large, new TAFE facility — possibly building on the growing Northbridge campus or in the Morley Activity Centre”; and,

• Redevelopment of the WACA, transitioning it to a community hub to fill infrastructure gaps in East Perth. The WACA’s vision for its grounds includes more community use, such as a 10-lane indoor cricket facility, a history museum, resizing the oval to accommodate AFL games and a new piazza open year-round. The only sticky wicket for the $75 million project is the $60m needed from the state and federal government.

The main benefit from the Perth City Deal so far is the Commonwealth’s foundation investment of $1.84b in Metronet.

by DAVID BELL

STORIES about Vincent life are being sought for the city’s yearly short film festival.

The festival’s a collaboration between Revelation and the City of Vincent, and there are three $5000 grants on offer for short, non-fiction films under 10 minutes which can be about anything local like Vincent characters, urban legends, community groups or local history.

One of the winning films from last year was “The Throwback”, the story of one of the remaining few movie rental stores in the Netflix era, Network Video Mount Hawthorn at The Mezz.

Store owner Melanie McInerney said she had a lot of fun despite some discomfort.

“I’m neither comfortable in front or behind a camera,” she laughed.

But she says filmmakers Louise Bertoncini, Jenny Crabb and Tim Fitzgerald put her at ease.

“We had a lot of laughs … it’s a real personal story they could tell, alongside the business [story]”.

Trying to keep the doors open has been a struggle and it’s been a long time since Ms McInerney drew a wage from working at the shop, but she has seen a boost in support after the film had a few screenings.

“I’ve had people just come into the store to say ‘I saw that documentary about you, and I just wanted to come in and shake your hand and thank you for what you’re doing’.

“There’ve been a handful of people who’ve been inspired to join the DVD store.”

Ms Bertoncini said she was drawn to the story because pedestrian-friendly Mount Hawthorn made it easier to meet local characters.

“Mel is one of those characters who is well known by many people because she has lived and worked in the area all her life. She is your classic hard-working, headstrong small business owner.”

Winners will also benefit from mentoring by Rev’s Ashleigh Nicolau, a freelance filmmaker known for the ABC drama The Heights.

The completed films screen at the 2020 Revelation Film Festival in July.

Entries are open now until November 1 via revelationfilmfest.org/city-of-vincent-film-project

by DAVID BELL

Colin was right
AFTER reading about the theft and rorting in yet another council (“Rorts ‘a fact of life’”, Voice, August 24, 2019), I feel vindicated about all my arguments with people about the smart and forward-thinking ex-premier Colin Barnett.
He wanted to get rid of these vultures and scrap councils because he obviously knew what was going on.
All these rotten apples disguised as local government councils were screaming blue murder and organised a massive media campaign to sway the minds of people to fight against it.
It’s amazing to me that this ridiculous and phony campaign actually swayed the minds of normally smart people into believing their BS, even with enormous evidence on how corrupt these entities actually were.
Not a year goes by without another council being caught out.
Why do we even need this corrupt form of government, especially while it is not compulsory to vote in their elections?
The way these councillors get in is by having enough votes from family and friends.
Perhaps we should have compulsory voting at the same time as state elections.
My preference would be to get rid of the whole corrupt infestation and make do with just another department in state government.
If I had a bet I would put money on the fact that all these shysters in Perth council will get no time in jail, and even more laughable no fines and will probably keep their entitlements.
I wonder what would happen if other people did these things to their employers?
Larry Arrigoni
Loftus Street, North Perth

Bravo Vincent
I CONGRATULATE Vincent Sammut (“How I became an anti-Semite without trying,” Speaker’s Corner, Voice, August 17, 2019) for highlighting the injustices done to the Palestinian people by the Israeli government.
He promptly received an avalanche of allegations that he is anti-Semitic.
But how can this be right?
If I criticise the Australian government am I labelled anti-caucasian?
Of course not.
If Israel behaves badly it must be criticised – history is full of examples of when we have not spoken out when we should have.
And Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, who were thrown out of their homes to make way for Israel, is both immoral and illegal.
The United Nations has labelled much of Israel’s territorial transgressions illegal.
Moreover, David Ben Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel, said to the president of the Jewish Congress in 1956: “If I was an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel…That is natural: we have taken their country… Why should they accept that?”
Or more succinctly, Berl Katznelson, a close ally of Ben-Gurion, said: “The Zionist enterprise is an enterprise of conquest.”
But if anyone 60 years later points out that that enterprise of conquest continues, they are to be labelled anti-Semitic?
If so, all reasonable, thinking people must be labelled anti-Semitic.
Mr Schildkraut alluded to the Jewish people’s 4000-year connection to the land of Israel as justification for evicting Palestinians who were living there at the time of the creation of Israel after World War II.
First, this knowingly ignores the equal connection to the same land by the Palestinians.
But such territorial arguments from history are generally disingenuous – Mr Schildkraut might consider his reaction if Australia’s Aboriginal people, who undoubtedly have a longer connection with their homeland, were to evict every non-Aboriginal person from their house and leave them stateless in refugee camps (Mr Schildkraut included I assume).
The Aboriginal people were brutally colonised, but two wrongs don’t make a right.
Israel is doing wrong by the Palestinians, and we must call them out.
Michael Wood
Bernard Street, West Leederville

Supporting Sammut
I FULLY support Vincent Sammut’s Speakers Corner (“How I became an anti-Semite without trying”, Voice, August 17, 2019)
Any legitimate criticisms of Israel’s unjust and illegal treatment of the Palestinian people is falsely claimed to be anti-Semitic and could indeed be labeled the “new anti-semitism”.
Vivienne Dayman
Drabble Road, Scarborough

You’re missing the point
IN Mr Sammut’s letter (“Trigger Happy”, Voice, August 31, 2019) he goes to great pains to recount his opposition to anti-semitism which is not really the point in this matter.
The real point is his ignorance (bias?) in the matter by claiming that Jewish settlement on “the very land on which Palestinians would build a future state” is “stealing” and is an “illegal practice”.
This, quite simply, is not true.
Despite being “condemned by the United Nations for decades to no avail”, no UN resolution can override Israel’s existing legal rights and title of sovereignty over any region of the land of Israel (including the disputed territories) based on earlier acts of international law.
Following the fall of the Ottoman empire the Arabs have already received their lands under the mandate system (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq).
It does not include “Palestine”.
The International Court of Justice has consistently recognised that the mandate survived the demise of the league and binds the subsequent United Nations.
As such, Jewish settlement, on their historical land, has always been legal and whether Israel exercises its right to settle the disputed territories at a particular time is thus a matter of prudence, not of law. Such prudence can, of course, be questioned.
As evidenced by the debacle of the Hamas takeover of Gaza after full Israeli withdrawal, the real obstacle to peace and Palestinian self-determination is continuing Arab refusal to accept and make real peace with Israel.
This is bound to and indeed has had territorial consequences, which hopefully will help to persuade the Arabs and their boycott divestment sanctions boosters that 71 years of intransigence is enough.
David Schildkraut
Northbridge

OVER the Fence Comedy Film Festival finishes its national tour with a night of laughs at Cinema Paradiso later this month.

Festival director Greg Coffey combed the world to come up with 14 diverse films for the festival, and now it’s up to the judges and the audience to pick the winners.

This year’s theme was Imperfect World and the short films deal with a range of very human topics, including bank-robbing senior citizens, online dating, a human-sized talking duck, and using social media to notify millennials of the second coming of Jesus Christ.

“He tells them he wants to hang up on two bits of timber…to get rid of sins,” Coffey says.

Small Town PD, by South Australian director Indianna Bell, is a farce about a large team of very bored police officers in a one-horse town.

“It takes the piss out of everything, particularly the police,” Coffey says.

Hateful Date, by Australian director/scriptwriter Adam Kiers, asks the question “what if two people on a first date were honest with each other”.

It also questions the lengths people will go to to be hip in their choice of clothing and coffee.

Harls, directed by Kenzie Sutton, features a beer-drinking kangaroo who goes to Reincarnated Anonymous because he can’t stop being reincarnated.

In We’re Going to Paris things don’t go to plan when a couple of retirees try to supplement their meagre pension with a bank robbery.

Like all the films there’s an unexpected punch line at the end to leave audiences laughing, even if they’re not sure what just happened. Now in it’s third year the offshoot festival A World of Dark Comedy will also be at Cinema Paradiso in Northbridge from October 31-November 2.

Over the Fence Comedy Film Festival is on September 19-21.

For more info or to book go to overthefence.com.au

By JENNY D’ANGER

INSPIRED creative design and whimsy have transformed this 1920 North Perth abode into a fascinating family home.

Situated across the road from the Redemptorist Monastery it was originally built as a home for the nuns, but there’s nothing monastic about this stunning, modern renovation.

Huge mural

As you step inside the original section you’ll marvel at the stained glass, half-timber dado, polished jarrah floorboards, ceiling roses and fireplaces.

Three of the four bedrooms are in the original section, along with a formal lounge with a gas fireplace.

Things start to get really interesting as you slide back the timber doors in the main bedroom to reveal a lovely en suite with raw-brick walls and subway tiles.

Like Dr Who’s tardis it’s deceptively big and has a massive shower in the centre of the room.

Adjacent is a white stone double vanity, and a step away a spacious dressing room.

The second bathroom screams modern Japan with stark grey plaster, white tiles and a black fibreglass deck in the shower.

The colour scheme is echoed in the spacious open plan where grey tones are offset by crisp white walls and black trims on the doors.

In an ingenious touch, the huge original linen cupboard has been converted into a study nook.

The generous kitchen has a sweep of white stone benchtops and plenty of drawers and cupboards.

Clever cabinetry by Artifex Perth ensures no wasted space, including a cupboard that swivels out to maximise storage.

Alfresco dining is made easy with a huge pivoted window that creates an outdoor servery/bar.

Local artist Brenton See painted the huge mural of pink and grey galahs in the “outdoor room”, which has high walls, tiled paving, stone benches and a raw-brick feature wall.

A nearby terrace has faux grass for kids to play on, and an alfresco sheltered by high walls and a double garage.

Situated on Vincent Street on the Leederville border, there’s a heap of cafes and shops nearby and you can walk to Hyde Park and Beatty Park pool.

This is a fantastic abode, so get along to a home open and check it out.

184 Vincent Street, North Perth
Offers over $1.049 million
Donna Buckovska 0419 928 467
Natalie Hoye 0405 812 273
Bellcourt Property Group Mt Lawley