THE tension in Marcella Polain’s Driving into the Sun is more palpable than some crime novels, and I found myself hunched over the pages in a cold sweat.
The award-winning North Perth author and academic is happy to hear of my unease.
“It was the sense I was hoping to create – a sense of foreboding that difficult things continue to happen,” she says.
The novel deals with a migrant family after the sudden death of the man of the house.
Orla, on the brink of puberty, struggles to make sense of the loss of her father, and her grieving mother struggles to make ends meet and provide financially and emotionally for Orla and her four-year-old sister Deebee.
Polain brings a powerful insight into the mind of a young girl dealing with devastating loss. Staccato sentences and unconventional grammar create a dramatic, poetic resonance.
The all-female family faces uncertainty amid the prejudices of chauvinistic Australia in 1968.
Back then women were unable to get a housing loan without a man as guarantor, and a single mother’s pension was nothing more than a gleam in Gough Whitlam’s eye.
Men were paid considerably more than women doing the same job, rape was something to make crude jokes about, and if your boss patted your bum or worse, making a fuss would get you fired.
Polain was a single mum “for a while”, and says society didn’t consider she had a ‘real’ family.
“I wanted to tease that out,” she says.
Driving into the Sun also debunks the rose-tinted version of the 1960s, that things were better and women could safely walk the streets.
“That’s not how I remember it,” says Polain, who recalls WA serial killer Eric Cook.
Driving in the Sun, published by Fremantle Press, is in bookshops now.
THE Perth tram line extension in 1900 led to a building boom in Mt Lawley as lower middle-class workers flocked to the area.
The new residents included shopkeepers, and this Grosvenor Road home started life as a grocery store with living quarters at the rear.
These days the chic home is a sought-after-address for the upwardly mobile.
The original 1900 property quickly morphs into a funky 21st century home with a New York warehouse feel.
The old shop is now a bedroom with french doors that open onto a tiny private courtyard.
Flanking the bedroom is an uber-modern bathroom with a deep bath and separate shower.
Old world is left behind as you walk into the kitchen/dining area, which has floor-to-ceiling bifold doors that open onto an alfresco deck.
The kitchen is compact and ultra-functional with a polished concrete island, a sweep of stainless steel benches and a tall pantry.
Shaded by a massive deciduous robinia, the spacious alfresco deck is sheltered in summer and open to warming rays in winter.
The tree adds to the charm of the garden, which is a delightful private space for entertaining or just chilling out.
And when a lemon is needed for a G&T, just reach out and pluck one from the nearby mature tree.
Its branches hang over the high boundary wall, adding a touch of realism to a terrific laneway mural of a woman with leaves for hair.
And if you need more fresh air, the central lounge has access to another tiny courtyard.
The huge, second-level main bedroom is bright and spacious thanks to a wall of glass, protected from the harsh summer sun by the robinia’s dense foliage.
The bedroom has a walk-in-robe and a sleek modern en suite, with double waterfall-showers and double vanities.
With the city so close, there’s no end of shops and cafes within walking distance.
There’s also a bus route nearby, so the car probably won’t get out of the lock-up garage much.
By JENNY D’ANGER
45 Grosvenor Road, Mt Lawley from $895,000 Pam Herron 0413 610 660 Jodi Darlington 0413 610 661 The Agency
• Deafness Foundation students and staff Emily King, Izaac Coubrough, Karina Op den Dries, Kendra Buss, Cameron Goff, Sophie Ardagh and Karole Marshall ready to board the Leeuwin. Photo supplied
TURN down the volume on your headphones or risk permanent hearing loss, warns the Deafness Foundation.
While music may make a monotonous commute or nagging parents more bearable, continually exposing your ears to loud sounds may lead to irreparable damage.
Almost a year ago the World Health Organisation revealed that more than 1.1 billion young people were at risk of hearing loss due to exposure to noise in recreational settings.
The report outlined a bleak future where over 900 million people, 1 in every 10, could have disabling hearing loss by 2050.
Andrew Mackendrick, audiologist from Harmony Hearing and Audiology, says the volume on smartphones is not regulated in Australia.
“This is a concern because as soon as you start getting up to 100 decibels it can start to cause serious hearing damage within minutes,” he says.
“I think the future of hearing loss will be recreational. Noise-induced hearing loss is the world’s most preventable disease.
“No louder than 85 decibels and having regular breaks is a good rule of thumb to follow.
“Listen for an hour, then have a 15-minute break.”
However with just a few changes, headphone users can minimise their risk: Audiologists recommend that you don’t exceed 80 percent volume levels on adevice, and listen for no more than 90 minutes per day on headphones.
This Sunday (March 3), the Deafness Foundation will kick off Hearing Awareness Week, promoting ways to protect your ears from loud noise.
Recently the foundation sent four deaf students on the Perth-based tall ship the Leeuwin, where they got to try their hand at navigating and hoisting up sails.
The sail coincided with the annual Rottnest Channel Swim.
• Associate Professor Kevin Pfleger and researcher Rekhati Abhayawardana with Diabetes Research executive director Sherl Westlund. Photosupplied
EVERY five minutes another Australian develops diabetes.
More than 1.7 million Aussies have the chronic disease and it’s estimated another half a million are undiagnosed.
But there are hopes that understanding a molecule known as “RAGE” could help control the effects of the disease. Diabetes Research WA has received a $60,000 grant to research the molecule.
Associate professor Kevin Pfleger is leading a Perth-based team.
“As RAGE is only present when cells are in this injured or stressed mode–which happens in type 2 diabetes–it’s a key target that we believe we can hone in to possibly prevent and definitely use to help fight the health effects of this condition,” he says.
“With our collaborators we’ve discovered a new way in which this molecule is activated, triggering a cascade of signalling in cells that leads to inflammation and cell injury. “We’ve found a way to inhibit this process which should, in turn, limit the complications of type 2 developing, so it’s incredibly exciting”
People who could benefit from the research include WA mum Janette Lano, who was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes after falling pregnant seven years ago.
“I was lucky that my type 2 diabetes was picked up and able to be managed so I could have a baby but there’s still so much more that needs to be done to help tackle the condition and ward off its complications which I do sometimes worry about developing,” she says.
“This research is very important in particular for me because being of South Asian descent puts me at higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. So having new and better ways to avoid health issues it can lead to would be amazing”
THERE have been so many false fire alarms at a public housing tower block in East Perth, residents don’t evacuate anymore.
One resident at the 100-unit complex on Goderich Street told us the alarms are going off at least once a week, sometimes three.
Initially people would evacuate, but when the alarm went off this week only three people left their homes.
A resident told the Voice it’s having a “Boy Who Cried Wolf” effect, and if there was a fire many people could be killed.
“If there is a fire they’re not going to evacuate,” the resident told us. “You get on average half a dozen who come out.”
On a couple of occasions the alarms were manually activated, but residents tell us in most cases they get set off by toasters, shower steam or for no discernible reason.
The department of fire and emergency services has different codes to record different alarms, and says their being set off for “various reasons” at the Goderich Street housing complex.
“We are able to confirm that firefighters have responses to a high number of false fire alarms at 70 Goderich Street, East Perth, in recent years, and specifically in recent months,” says Michelle Smith from the DFES.
Ms Smith say they are working with the Housing Authority to reduce the number of false alarms.
In 2015 FESA introduced a fee for false fire alarms: after the third false alarm at one property in a financial year, the owner is issued a $920 bill for the callout.
Ms Smith says FESA has issued “a number of false fire alarm invoices” to the Housing Authority this year.
The DFES and the Housing Authority will meet this month to discuss fire alarm activations and possible solutions.
“The department has also provided a notice to tenants in an effort to reduce the number of attendances for fire alarms at the complex,” Jackie Tang from the authority told the Voice.
“Steps occupants can take include not smoking near detectors, ventilating steam and fumes away from detectors, and not leaving food unattended on stove tops.
“Tenants were also reminded that in the event of a fire, all occupants must evacuate the building.”
Just before we went to print a Goderich Street resident called to tell us the fire alarms had gone off, again, on the night of Tuesday February 19.
• Lisa Baker’s been accused of all sorts of militant veganism since last week’s speech. File photo
RARELY has a parliamentary speech led to such widespread outrage as Lisa Baker’s relatively mild prompt to eat less meat.
But the Maylands MP told the Voice she won’t shy away from bringing up difficult issues.
Ms Baker finished her speech with a quote from a Lancet article: “So what is a healthy amount of red or processed meat? It’s looking increasingly like the answer, for both the planet and the individual, is very little. The conversation has to start soon.”
The conversation started two days after her speech on February 15, and it was not a kind exchange.
The West Australian ran an article with quotes from four people who thought her idea was silly, including Angus cattle breeder Gary Buller, who said “people with these views are away with the fairies—they’re green communists”.
Green elitism
Pastoralists and Graziers Association WA President Tony Seabrook said Ms Baker was hellbent on bringing down the red meat industry, and WA Farmers chief executive Trevor Whittington said Ms Baker represented “inner-city, green elitism gone mad”.
This led to hundreds of outraged online comments on The West articles from meat eaters, including personal attacks on Ms Baker and her appearance.
In a follow-up article, The West included a comment calling for “a psych evaluation of all newly elected persons to parliament”
In the days following the articles, Ms Baker’s Facebook page has been relentlessly trolled: she can’t post about a school funding announcement without a torrent of abuse, often about her appearance.
Her speech has been interpreted as a demand for people to go vegan, as a call for a new law for “Meat-Free Mondays”, and as an attack on men — one prolific poster on her Facebook page said she was a “dirty feminist man-hating liar…and I will push this come election time”
The man-hating backlash stems from a reference she made to a UK study, which broke down diets into six categories and found greenhouse gas emissions were highest for mainly carnivorous men and lowest for vegan women — and Ms Baker clarified she’s not a vegan herself.
It was also described as an “attack on farmers,” with MP Peter Rundle saying during her speech “there won’t be any farmers left”, if her ideas come to pass.
But the speech was calling for changed farming practices; not to ban them.
“There will be a definite need for farming,” Ms Baker replied to Mr Rundle, and the speech actually began by drawing attention to the plight of farmers suffering at the hands of climate change followed by suggestions to mitigate it.
Ms Baker told the Voice: “The speeches I make in the WA parliament are well-researched, based on solid evidence and are comprehensively referenced.
“I make it clear what is fact and what is my opinion and I don’t pick topics I don’t believe in. Once a year I take the opportunity to speak about a broad issue that is not restricted to my electorate but has universal relevance.
“Some of the topics I have raised in previous years include ethical investment and business models, housing affordability and homelessness, and the growth in global science and investment in genetically produced meat.
“I intend to continue to bring big issues to this parliament.
“My constituents expect me to be authentic.
“Starting conversations about issues that may be considered complex or difficult is an opportunity that I value.”
Stories by DAVID BELL
A spicy speech
REDUCE meat consumption to fight climate devastation, Maylands MP Lisa Baker told state parliament on February 13.
“We have been looking long and hard at some of the more obvious culprits—namely coal and gas—for a long time, but there is definitely an elephant in this debating room, and I turn members’ attention to it: the impact of food production and the livestock industry on greenhouse gas emissions, climate change and health.
“Meat has been and continues to be excluded from most public policy debates about climate change.
“I suspect we all know why: it is highly sensitive.
“We live in a meat-eating culture and we have made a lot of money out of breeding animals and feeding the world.
“It is a tricky subject, but if we do not address this, climate change will continue.”
Ms Baker said a meat-eater’s diet results in 52 per cent more greenhouse gas emissions compared to a vegetarian, and 100 per cent more than a vegan.
“Personally, I think governments have a role to play, as do each of us as individuals. We can set examples by limiting our consumption of intensively farmed meat for human health and for global environment, as well as animal welfare reasons. Programs like Meat-Free Monday are a really good start in changing behaviours.”
Ms Baker raised the “Planetary Health Diet” described in UK medical journal The Lancet. It’s a “science-based diet” that aims to avert “global environmental catastrophe” and also improve the poor quality food eaten by billions of people.
The Planetary Health Diet calls for global red meat and sugar consumption to be cut by half, and vegetable, fruit and nut consumption needs to double.
She noted The Lancet was “not generally acknowledged to be a left-wing radical driver of change; It is pretty conservative”.
Stirling mayor Mark Irwin and members of African bands Akwaaba and Bella Ndayikeze will be hoping to set a new drumming world record on Harmony Day.
The city council wants to try and get more than 61 nationalities playing in a drum circle, which would break the record set by a not-for-profit organisation in Canada last July.
“We’re lucky in Stirling because we are one of the most multicultural local governments in Australia, so I am positive we have a really good chance of breaking this record,” Cr Irwin said.
The attempt will take place on Friday March 15, between 9am and 11am, at The Square Mirrabooka.
JOANNE QUINN has spared no expense in trying to become the Stirling Liberal candidate at the upcoming federal election.
The 47-year-old has tried to woo Liberal state delegates with a glossy six-page brochure outlining her credentials ahead of the Stirling pre-selection vote today (Saturday February 23).
A party insider said candidates normally send delegates a Word-style document with background information and a headshot, and the professional-looking brochure which includes numerous testimonials, was unprecedented.
“Stirling has never been retained by any political party following the retirement of a sitting member,” wrote Ms Quinn in her brochure.
“For our party to win Stirling, we will need to make history.
“The gravity of your decision cannot be understated.”
Ms Quinn, general counsel at Edith Cowan University, is one of four women, along with former army officer Vince Connelly, who will vie for pre-selection on Saturday.
With the Liberal party under fire for its very bloke-heavy benches in the federal chamber, the seat is being seen as a chance for the Blues to address the imbalance.
Martin Drum, associate professor in politics at Notre Dame University, says he wasn’t surprised at the number of women nominating for Stirling.
“There’s likely to be pressure from both inside and outside the Liberal party to preselect a women in Stirling,” Dr Drum says.
“The percentage of women in the Federal Liberal party room is still way too low and unsurprisingly this is getting a lot of attention.
“Only by selecting quality female candidates in winnable seats can this be addressed.
“Stirling is a must-hold seat for the Liberals at the next election.
“With a margin of 6.1 per cent it’s hard to see the Liberals winning the election if they cannot hold it.”
Ms Quinn, who is allegedly being backed by party powerbrokers Mathias Cormann and Peter Collier, is favourite to be pre-selected, but Mr Connelly, vice-president of the Liberal Party’s Stirling division, is believed to have strong support amongst the local rank and file.
Other candidates are Michelle Sutherland, Georgina Fraser and Taryn Houghton.
MOUNT LAWLEY Labor MP Simon Millman has condemned Liberal MP Jim Chown’s “Jews of Asia” remark, saying it follows an increase in intolerance that constituents have reported to him lately.
On Saturday The West Australian reported Mr Chown made the comment during a 2015 meeting in Shanghai, which he and other MPs attended to meet with Rio Tinto representatives to discuss iron ore.
The visit was organised by Chinese tech company Huawei, and Mr Chown said learning about Huawei’s tracking capabilities left him “distinctly uneasy”.
The West reports that when someone mentioned the Chinese were improving their contracting arrangements, Mr Chown said “oh, so they are the Jews of Asia then”.
Mr Millman represents several suburbs with large Jewish communities including Menorah and Yokine, and Mt Lawley is home to the Temple David synagogue.
“It has been very disquieting to see the increase in intolerance in our community. I’ve had a number of constituents raise their concerns about this sort of issue with me, which is why I’ve brought it up with the minister in the past month,” Mr Millman said.
“To see the comments that are reported in the West Australian provides an insight into the sort of attitude that is permeating and pervading the WA Liberal party.”
“It’s time for Dr Nahan to stand up and say he’s not going to tolerate this sort of antisemitism, this sort of prejudice from amongst his front bench.
“Now is the time for some real leadership from Liberal Party to demonstrate that they are a modern, mainstream political party and there’s no room for these sorts of comments.”
“It’s a really good opportunity for us to send a strong message to the community that we’re not just going to stand by and allow this sort of intolerance.”
Mr Chown, the shadow minister for regional development, has said he did not remember saying the “Jews of Asia” comment, but apologised if any offence was caused.
In November the executive council of Australian Jewry reported a 59 per cent rise in recorded antisemitic incidents from 2017 to 2018.
The report stated there had been “a noticeable emboldening of the far right,” with the rise of groups like The Lads Society, Antipodean Resistance, and the attempt of the far right to infiltrate the NSW Nationals party.
“Many far right individuals in Australia who were formerly active against Islam and Muslims during 2015-2017 have now switched their focus away from Muslims and towards Jews,” the report noted.
The register shows members of Antipodean Resistance, a neo-Nazi group founded in 2016, have begun operating in Perth.
The report also notes that new far right nationalist movement The Lads Society has plans to open a clubhouse in Perth. The Lads Society was cofounded by United Patriots Front leader Blair Cottrell, and operates under the veneer of improving the fitness of young men, while training them to fight.
In June 2018 outgoing racial discrimination commissioner Tim Soutphommasane warned we were “flirting with danger” in the debate over China’s influence and interference, saying the suspicion towards the Chinese state (and the companies it controls like Huawei) was in danger of spilling over into racism against Chinese people.
• 99-year-old Madge Hitchins steals the show every week at Leederville’s Nirvana Dance Club. Photo by Margaret Hodgson
SHE’S a dancing queen, but she’s certainly not seventeen.
99-year-old Madge Hitchins is a walking or dancing reminder that it’s never too late to boogie as she takes to the dance floor at Leederville Town Hall every Saturday night.
Mrs Hitchens always steals the show and dresses to shock, claims her close friend Margaret Hodgson.
“One week she’ll be dressed as the devil, the next she’ll be wearing a slit skirt showing off her great pair of legs.”
Ms Hodgson says its hard to pinpoint the secret to Mrs Hitchins’ contagious energy as she closes in on the big 100.
“I suppose she chose her parents very carefully.”
But Mrs Hitchins says it’s not all down to her genes: “I’ve never had a smoke. I never had any lollies, ice-cream or any of that until I was seventeen.”
“The biggest problem really is finding a good partner,” says Mrs Hitchins, with a chuckle. “Most of them have passed on, but I prefer being a lone wolf now.”
Mrs Hitchins was an assistant schoolteacher for most of her adult life, but always wanted to do more travelling.
“I turned 70 and went gee girl, you better get a move on.”
“I bought a round-the-world ticket with my neighbour and off we went.”
“We tend to forget her age as she never acts it,” says Ms Hodgson. “There’s probably no one else like her in Australia.”
Perth Voice Interactive 