Perth Voice Interactive

STIRLING council and the state government are at loggerheads over plans to sell off an old drug rehab site in Mt Lawley.

The site on Field Street was previously used by the WA Alcohol and Drug Authority, but has been vacant since the organisation relocated, and now the McGowan government is preparing to offload the land as part of its revenue-raising drive.

WA planning minister Rita Saffioti wants the site re-zoned to three-storey residential to cater for about 20 apartments, but the council’s planning committee says that would destroy the single-storey character of the area.

Strategic basis

“…It may set a precedent for owners of other sites to apply for their property to be rezoned with no strategic basis,” council officers wrote in a report.

“Development of multiple dwellings has taken place in the area, but this occurred circa 1960s before the area was deliberately downzoned to a low density zoning.”

The staffers noted that Stirling’s planning guidelines supported increased density along the Beaufort Street corridor, but not in surrounding areas.

Public consultation revealed that 53.4 per cent of respondents were against the re-zoning.

Mount Lawley Society president Paul Collins said they supported the government’s rezoning if the trees were retained in the north-east corner and there was parking access and egress at the rear right of way.

He says the council’s proposal of lower density would be an opportunity missed.

“Restricting the site to single residential R20 so close to the Mount Lawley town centre would be a huge opportunity lost to increase the vibrancy of the Mount Lawley town centre,” Mr Collins told the Voice.

“A single building of apartments opposed to five single residential buildings would also provide the opportunity for a better architectural outcome from a heritage perspective for such a prominent site.

“The society acknowledges that if the single residential density of our side residential streets are to be protected then density needs to occur on sites like this in a manner which is a win for everyone including those who support tree retention.”

The WAPC and Ms Saffioti will have final say.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

PERTH filmmakers Mat de Koning and Brooke Silcox want the public to help them finish their documentary on gifted artist Matt Doust, who tragically died in 2013.

29 Years Eight Days will explore the life of Doust, a hyper-realist portrait painter who died aged 29 following an epileptic seizure, just two weeks before his highly-anticipated debut show in Los Angeles.

Doust was born in Santa Monica, California but grew up in Perth.

“Matt Doust was my best friend,” de Koning told the Voice.

“Making this documentary has been hard, emotionally. I look back through this footage as I am editing and I think of what could have been. Brooke also knew Matt and this is a very personal project – an ode to a very dear friend of ours.”

Doust was a finalist in the 2011 Archibald Prize for his portrait of Perth-born actress Gemma Ward.

She and other members of the Perth arts community, including street artist Stormie Mills and musicians Joe McKee and Lindsay Troy, share stories about their eccentric friend in the doco.

The filmmakers are looking for donations to fund the latest stage of the production, which includes editing over 16 years’ worth of footage.

“How would you feel if you were left holding the legacy of your best friend in your hands? It’s a hugely daunting task I am confronted with and I want to do it right,” de Koning said.

Silcox has been working closely with Doust’s mother, Lynn, to catalogue the artist’s work for the documentary.

“Lynn and I spent a lot of evenings and weekends over more than four years transcribing the poetry and writings in his journals and scanning his unseen sketches to collect over 5000 assets,” Silcox told the Voice.

Catalogued

“Now that we have this incredible work catalogued we want to share it with the world.”

Silcox and de Koning won awards for their debut feature Meal Tickets, a warts-and-all documentary about the rollercoaster journey of Perth band Screwtop Detonators.

Donations towards 29 Years Eight Days can be made at
http://www.documentaryaustralia.com.au

by MATTHEW EELES

VINCENT council has approved names for anonymous laneways around Beaufort Street.

There was some concern about the process, with Cr Ros Harley noted the criteria was inconsistent. Some Nyoongar words were approved while similar ones were deemed too generic and rejected.

“We need to play a little bit more hardball when a government department says ‘computer says no’,” Cr Harley said.

Words like “bono” (wood) were rejected as “not local to the area”, but Boodja, meaning “ground, land or country,” was recommended for the laneway near Grosvenor Street.

The names were shortlisted by Landgate, with input from the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and the Whadjuk Working Group. Vincent councillors approved the final names this week, and it will go back to Landgate for rubber stamping.

Cr Harley said it became tricky when laneways were named after people: “I don’t understand why one war veteran gets a laneway and another war veteran doesn’t.

by DAVID BELL

AFTER 47 years of vinyl ecstasy, 78 Records in Perth is closing down

The record shop opened in 1971 in the Padbury Building on Forrest Place, and quickly became an integral part of Perth’s music scene, attracting record enthusiasts from across the state.

This week 78’s boss Andrew “Fang” de Lang posted on Facebook that he would be pulling down the shutters for the last time on March 3.

“This decision is due to the current economic and retail climate, with a substantial increase in streaming services at the expense of physical products.

Devotion

“We thank all our customers, past and present, for their patronage; indeed we have enjoyed those 47 years of commitment and devotion to the cause of music.

“It has been a pleasure to have played a considerable and significant part in the WA music retail industry since 1971.”

In recent years vinyl has enjoyed a renaissance with a whole new generation enjoying 180-gram reissues and hoary parents getting back into LPs after their kids leave home.

Fremantle still has three record stores including The Record Finder on High Street.

“I feel very sorry with what’s happening to 78s” says owner Mark Lahogue, who has been in the record trade for more than 30 years.

He says despite 78’s closure, the future of vinyl is looking bright.

“Vinyl is definitely growing. It was the biggest growth industry in America a few years ago.

“I’m always having to get more and more stock to cover the demand.”

Mr Lahogue says good customer service and lots of variety is the key to running a successful record shop.

“You’ve got to have everything: you’ve got to cater to all niches of music. It’s not just rock. Not everyone’s into head banging music.”

If you fancy grabbing a vinyl bargain before 78 Records closes, head over to its store at 255 Murray Street.

by CHARLIE BRAY

STIRLING councillor Karen Caddy is fighting a losing battle to become the Liberal candidate for Stirling at the looming federal election.

Under WA Liberal Party rules a candidate must have been a member for at least 30 days before nominating, but Ms Caddy only signed up on January 25, the same day of Stirling MP Michael Keenan’s shock announcement he wouldn’t be re-contesting the seat.

Ms Caddy says she is a dyed-in-the-wool Blue and is calling for special dispensation before nominations close on February 15.

“I have been an active Liberal supporter for many years, regularly attending fundraisers and supporting my local members with their election campaigns,” she says.

“I was in discussions with my local branches about joining up, but simply hadn’t gotten around to doing so.

“I have lived in Stirling for 25 years and served the Stirling community for five years as their local councillor.

“I am committed to this community and I want to be sure that we have a strong local voice in Canberra–someone who will stand up for our values and address our challenges.”

Slim

But the Voice understands her chances of being nominated are slim, with the WA Liberal Party’s constitution forbidding the reduction of the 30-day provisional membership.

Other likely nominees include Michelle Sutherland, state president of the WA Liberal Women’s Council and a Bayswater councillor; Joanne Quinn, a corporate lawyer who is general counsel for Edith Cowan University, and Vince Connelly, Stirling division vice-president and staffer to Curtin MP Julie Bishop.

“There have been a number of highly credible and strong potential candidates expressing an interest in contesting the seat of Stirling for the Liberal Party,” said WA Liberal Party state director Sam Calabrese.

Mr Keenan has been the Liberal member for Stirling for almost 15 years, but his wife gave birth to their fourth child last year and he said he was stepping down to spend more time with his family.

During his tenure he increased the seat’s Liberal margin from two to six per cent, but commentators say without an incumbent, Labor have a chance of winning Stirling at this year’s election.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

MAYLANDS sailor Duke Secco (12) sailed into fourth position last month in a category of the world mirror championships in Sydney.

As the youngest competitor, he was pitting himself against sailors who’ve been in the sport more than 30 years.

With the harbour bridge as a backdrop, Duke was up against 60 of the world’s best mirror dinghy captains in the open fleet and the classic timber mirrors.

Apart from picking up the junior award during the nationals, Duke finished an admiral fourth in the classic mirrors section and finished 34th in the overall fleet.

DURING her 40-year stint on the Antiques Roadshow, Hilary Kay has seen all manner of fakes and forgeries, including “microwave safe” stamped on the bottom of a supposedly ancient dish.

The legendary appraiser is in Perth this Saturday (February 9) to share some tales from her time on the road, including those difficult conversations with punters who’ve been “sold a pup”.

Ms Kay says people are fascinated by fakes, because they bring to light very human issues: “It’s about greed, about taking down the experts, it’s about opportunism. But also, one has to say it’s about genius.”

Forgers

She says some forgers have come up with inspired ways to make their items look genuine.

One of the early forgers, Carl Wilhelm Becker, pioneered fakery in the early 1800s during a coin-collecting frenzy driven by the release of a collector’s price guide.

Ironically, Becker was drawn to forgery after being duped.

“He was sold a pup by a fellow collector, and this seriously irritated him…he was driven by such a rage.”

He started producing Roman coins intended to be about 2000 years old: “and of course they looked brand new,” Ms Kay says. So Becker would put the coins in a box of iron filings and attach the box to the axle of his wagon, and season them with several months’ travel until they appeared suitably battered.

“Coin collectors have a grudging respect for Carl Wilhelm Becker,” Ms Kay says.

The UK National Gallery defines a fake as an object that’s been tampered by adding a signature or a false provenance, while a forgery like Becker’s “Roman” coin is an object created to imitate a genuine piece.

Ms Kay has seen some terrible fakes in her time on the Antiques Roadshow, and when someone finds out their treasured item isn’t real, the reactions vary.

“The emotion depends on why they’ve bought it and how much they’ve paid for it,” she says.

“If it’s a 500-pound investment and they’re told it’s worth 10 pounds, the reaction is different…some people are very disappointed and want to find out how they can take the seller to court or get their money back,” but the sellers have proved good at being untraceable.

She says these conversations are “not easy…my colleague Paul Atterbury says it very well: ‘We’re something between a priest and a doctor. We have to be able to deliver bad news in a palatable way.’

“It is always hard, because as a human being it’s much easier to deliver happy news, because we want to make people happy. To deliver bad news, you have to take a good deal of time to judge it, and you have to manage people’s expectations…it is difficult to do well.”

She says the fascination people have with these conversations is one of the reasons the Antiques Roadshow has enjoyed such longevity.

Ms Kay is in town as part of the Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Societies’ 2019 Perth lecture series.

She has two talks on February 9 at North Metro Tafe: At 1pm she’ll speak about fakes and forgeries, then at 3pm it’s tales from behind the scenes on the Antiques Roadshow.

The lecture series continues February 16 with British historian Guy de la Bédoyère telling the story of a Roman cameo that survived being aboard the Batavia when it was shipwrecked in 1629.

Later lectures include the story of the Bayeux Tapestry, the tale of Constantinople/Istanbul, and the secret desert city of Petra.

The lectures are $25 each or $10 if you’re under 30, via  trybooking.com

But if you’re not an online-type there’s some available at the door, or there’s an annual membership to the ADFSA to see them all, enquire at perth@adfas.org.au

by DAVID BELL

THE grass at Beatty Park oval looks moribund after power was cut to the sprinklers, but don’t worry council says the hardy kikuyu will grow back.

This week the Voice’s dogs were unimpressed to find the once luscious turf had gone a classic shade of Aussie-brown, after the recent heatwave.

Disconnect

Vincent mayor Emma Cole says Western Power had to disconnect the power for about four days as it was changed over from the soon-to-be-demolished Beatty Park Pavilion to Beatty Park Leisure Centre.

Kikuyu grass originates from East Africa and is almost unkillable, so council workers only had to take care of the plants during the downtime.

“To prepare for this, our parks team hand watered the plants surrounding Beatty Park prior to, and during, the disconnection to ensure no plants died in the heat,” Ms Cole says.

“As the turf is resilient and unlikely to die during the downtime, hand watering wasn’t conducted on the oval.”

WITH the Victorian state government announcing a ban on “conversion therapy” this week, WA Greens MP Alison Xamon has called on WA to follow suit.

The therapy attempts to “cure” gay people by making them straight, and is mostly used by fundamentalist religious groups.

The Victorian Health Complaints Commissioner found “overwhelming evidence” that the therapy does serious long-term harm, leading to trauma, self-hatred and in some cases suicide.

Victorian premier Daniel Andrews announced the ban on Sunday September 3, calling the practice “bigoted quackery”.

The Australian Christian Lobby has vaguely opposed the ban, worried the proposed new law could affect religious parents wanting to “raise families consistent with their religious and moral convictions”, according to a statement by managing director Martyn Iles in November.

Appalling practice

Ms Xamon, Greens spokesperson for mental health, says gay conversion therapy is “an appalling practice that attempts to change the fundamental truth of a person’s identity by methods that are questionable at best; and outright abusive at worst.

“We know that the ‘therapy’ often takes place informally, often in a religious context, and most often by unlicensed and unregulated therapists and psychologists.”

She notes the practice is opposed by the Australian Medical Association, the Royal A&NZ College of Psychiatrists and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.

In 2017 WA mental health minister Roger Cook said he opposed the practice and would look into whether WA’s laws needed changing, but he said this week there was still nothing concrete in place.

“We’ll watch closely to see how the ban on gay conversion therapy progresses in Victoria,” he says.

by DAVID BELL