Your free, independent newspaper
Artist Jesse Lee Johns is known for his intricate style and detailed map-based murals. His latest creation is an eight-metre long mural at Beatty Park Leisure Centre, showing the City of Vincent in miniature. If you head along to take a look, you’ll see that Johns has faithfully reproduced many local buildings. The mural also maps out the locations of 10 bike repair stations around town, festooned with
tools to fix your bike up on the go.
No glory for whole story
TO the Voice directors, please respectfully keep the “glory hole” stories out of the community newspapers.
Are you desperate to fill the pages by reporting that a man was recently convicted because he stuck his penis through a glory hole in Coogee?
Is your story going to pave the way for other mentally disturbed men to follow in his footsteps?
You have now even advertised where one can find a glory hole. Is this necessary?
Do we live in the dark ages?
If it’s all been replaced by hook-up apps then why do these doors still exist? They should also be removed from sex shops.
Mr Buckley calls us conservative dinosaurs! What planet does he live on to think that this door is socially interesting and important?
Perth Voice, please stop encouraging him and refrain from publishing any future stories on this subject.
Thanking you kindly for your consideration,
Angelika White
Address supplied
Ed says: Our original story on the WA Museum acquiring a toilet door with a glory hole in it (“WA’s glorious history”, Voice, December 8, 2018), was picked up by numerous media outlets in Australia, including The West Australian/Sunday Times, and around the world. So clearly there was a lot of interest in the issue.
Praise the lord – Ray’s back
EVERY person is worth saving I believe.
God wants all people to be saved and to learn the truth (1 Tim 2:4)
God doesn’t want to destroy anyone. But wants all people to have an opportunity to turn to him and change the way they think and act and receive his approval (2 Peter 3:9)
If you are not a christian (a follower of Jesus Christ) you can not fulfil this greatest desire of God for your life.
That is why you must turn to God; change the way you think and act; believe in his son Jesus; and be baptised.
Place your confidence and trust in Jesus Christ and the holy spirit will give you a new life.
Jesus is so good to everybody. Praise God.
Raymond Conder
Central Ave, Inglewood
YOUNG teens can enjoy an entertaining fable about the internet at the Blue Room Theatre this summer.
Troll is a lo-fi, Wi-Fi show about the digital age and things that go bump in the night.
Changing the world
Written and performed by Kiwi Ralph McCubbin Howell, it’s set in 1998 when the internet was on the cusp of changing the world.
Puppets, music and storytelling are used to explore young people’s interaction with the net.
“It’s a mythical landscape, where myth and the digital world meet,” Howell says.
“We wanted to bring the innovative design and intricate narrative into the contemporary world with staging that transforms the devices we use everyday – so smart phones become light sources and keyboards turn into skyscrapers.”
Otto is 12 but online he’s 13 and is pretty sure no one knows he’s not really a teenager.
He lives in an old wooden two-storey house with his parents, sister, a chain-smoking Icelandic granny, and an ancient malevolent troll who lives in the wall cavity.
The mythical Icelandic creature, created out of cables and wire, is a metaphor for online trolling, and the way the digital world dominates young people’s lives, Howell says.
“And its Otto’s way of dealing with depression and anxiety.”
Troll, by New Zealand theatre company Trick of the Light, is on January 29-February 9 as part of Blue Room’s Summer Nights Fringe World program.
Tickets at http://www.fringeworld.com.au
by JENNY D’ANGER
OPERA singer Fiona Cooper Smyth’s vision for Defying Gravity was celestial music of the highest order.
But singer partner Penny Shaw kept coming up with amusing twists on the songs.
“I just heard lifting your boobs up and getting botox,” she laughs.
Lip-sucking
The final result is a botox-pumping, lip-sucking, wrinkle-relaxing cabaret that will have you rolling in the aisles.
“She completely ruined my idea,” Cooper Smyth sighs.
Better known as Divalicious, the duo have been making the world of opera accessible for years.
When they first met they were rivals on the opera scene, but they quickly bonded over tears, tantrums and a warped sense of humour.
Defying Gravity puts mortality, vitality and virility under the knife as opera classics mingle with the best of Broadway.
“We claw back the years to explore the dubious joys of being ‘midults’, in a world that worships youth and beauty, flawless skin and stick-like figures,” the pair say.
Like Les Miserables’ End of the Day (You’re Another Day Older), Don’t Cry For Me Argentina is a riotous parody and will have you crying with laughter.
“Women of a ‘certain age’ have a lot to put up with,” Shaw says.
“Approaching this subject with our usual irreverence we have put a new twist on some classic songs, rewritten lyrics and made some new discoveries that deal with this delicate subject matter in a humorous way.
“Fiona and I have had great fun creating this show and making it M rated. M for Mature, M for Mums, and M for More Champagne and chocolate please.”
Best ever
Defying Gravity is Divalicious’ fourth show in eight years and they reckon it will be their best ever.
“It’s certainly the most outrageous,” Cooper Smyth says.
“So if any of these words strike a chord…put down your knitting, or your iPhones, book a ticket and come along for a rumpus ride recapturing life as we once knew it.”
Part of Fringe World, Defying Gravity is at the De Parel Spiegeltent in Russell Square from January 29-February 3.
Tickets at fringeworld.com.au
by JENNY D’ANGER
AFTER keeping this image to myself for almost six months, I think it’s about time others are blessed by the chaotic energy of this absolute mad lad.
Sadly I do not know it’s name: I haven’t been able to ask because it won’t stop barking and let me get a word in edgeways, so I call it Sir Hairy Chinwhiskers of Farmer Street.
In a complete freak incident, for a brief moment, Sir Hairy finally remained still enough for me to take this rather clear shot.
by MADELEINE MAZZA, North Perth
IN this special opinion piece on soccer, Football West CEO James Curtis explains why we need more female-friendly facilities to support the increasing number of women playing “The World Game”.
THE football community in Western Australia should be in good spirits heading into 2019.
The world game is flourishing in Australia and WA.
And if the results of a nationwide study released in 2018 are a guide, the upwards curve is set to continue for a long time yet.
Australian Sports Commission figures show football is by far the most popular team sport in the country.
Indeed, almost twice as many children under 15 play football as play its nearest rival Aussie Rules.
Numbers are strong
The AusPlay Survey simply backs up what our football community already knew: Our numbers are strong, particularly with growth of female players in WA.
We have almost 20,000 female players involved across all Football West activities and female football in WA has seen a growth of more than 40 per cent since 2009.
Perhaps more relevant is the 24 per cent growth for girls over the past four years, an incredible expansion. From the youngsters in the ALDI MiniRoos classes to the elite of the Women’s Premier Division and on to our fledgling Women’s Masters competition, female football is delivering on all fronts.
This was recognised recently when the WA government asked players from the all-conquering Women’s Premier champions Queens Park to front its 16 Days in WA to Stop Violence Against Women campaign. The profile of players such as Kat Jukic, Tia Stonehill and Jaymee Gibbons is reaching far and wide and further justifies why, in a national first for an Australian member federation, Football West developed a Female Football Plan for 2018-2022 alongside our Strategic Plan.
However, with the growth comes expectation and this why we cannot become complacent. The infrastructure has to be in place to support players coming through.
Investment in community facilities is one area that needs to be addressed. The majority of clubs deliver programs to more than 1000 people each week during the season and more than half identified facilities investment as a key factor in supporting the community football.
With over 190 clubs having female players in WA, there is a strong demand for upgrading facilities to be female friendly.
More than 70 per cent of females in football want increased government investment and improved facilities. Females dissatisfied with facilities are 22 per cent less likely to be satisfied with their club and 36 per cent less likely to be satisfied with the standard of football. Those figures cannot be ignored.
Which brings us squarely to the case for a State Football Centre to further harness the sport’s growth. With over 230,000 people engaged in the game in WA, access to world class facilities in a purpose-built training centre means we can continue to cater for the demand from right across the community. Without it we risk missing out.
Women’s and men’s premier leagues, state team trials, inclusion programs, skill programs for our youngsters, exchange programs, coaching courses, volunteer development, referee workshops…the benefit for the local game is endless. And it goes further.
In the past two years alone, we have hosted the Matildas, Socceroos, Chelsea, Persebaya, Singapore, Thailand Women’s Team and many others in WA.
Each time it has been a battle to provide an experience that respects the strength of WA football in Australia and Asia.
Our recent three-year partnership with Shanghai FA demonstrates what WA football has to offer.
Facilities investment to ensure that community does not miss out on participation is crucial, and Football West is working with our 248 clubs to ensure that each club has an inclusive culture to reflect the world game in WA.
Massive asset
The cross-community appeal of football is a massive asset and is unmatched in Australia.
Finally, I would like to pay tribute to the tireless volunteer support without whom clubs could not operate. Be it canteen and bar staff, ground staff or the people working the gate. These people provide an invaluable service.
This is particularly so in regional WA, which represents 23 per cent of our membership base, where it is not uncommon for club presidents and secretaries to take on two, three or even four roles in both their own club and the league in general. Support these people, they are the lifeblood of our sport.
This year will present challenges and opportunities: Our biggest challenge is to ensure that we support the growth of the game and that no one in the community misses out on an opportunity to participate. But they are challenges football is uniquely placed to meet.
CATE JENNINGS enjoys making some newspaper hats with her 95-year-old dad Des, a World War II veteran, and her 94-year-old mum Kath, who also served in WW II with the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service.
Straight to a crossword, thence to the Stars
(Aught to avoid any bad news that jars!)
What’s on at the flicks? Any concerts of note?
Local cafes (let’s see what they wrote…..)
Community Theatre. Yoga and choirs.
Fairs I can go to in neighbouring shires.
Origami is fun – I’ve dabbled in that
For the kiddies I make a Napoleon hat!
Of course cleaning windows with newspaper rates,
Plus wrapping the peelings of carrots, potatoes!
Villainous plastic and its toxic vapours
Means I now wrap all “wet” refuse in papers.
I volunteer to read print for the blind
“Community News.” What events can I find?
By this little poem, I’m sure you can see
That newspapers mean more than one thing to me!
This is an extract from the Vincent Writing Centre’s first anthology of short stories and poetry. To get the full story and a stash of others, contact Peter Jeffrey on peter.jeffery@iinet.net.au or call 0481 462 612
I TRAVEL to Perth quite often with my family, and enjoy the ride on TransWA to Mandurah, and then on to the northern suburbs by train.
Because I use a walking frame, on the train, I have to use the seats located immediately inside the sliding doors, that are reserved for mothers with prams and seniors with walking frames.
These seats give me a good view of each side of the long carriage, and I can also observe the passengers, boarding and departing.
The one drawback I have noticed over the years, is that no one speaks to fellow travellers any more.
No – “How you going?” “Are you travelling far?” “What a lovely day!”
And the reason for this is, they, the passengers, are all seated working their mobile phones.
Their heads are bent down, their necks are turtles stretched out of their shell, and their fingers are constantly playing over the face of the mobile.
I asked my son who lives in North Perth, if he could record for me on a small cassette tape, the sound of a telephone bell, ringing very, very loudly.
He gave me a querying look, and asked me, what mischief I was hatching, and I told him:
The next time I travel on the Mandurah to North Perth train I would carry on my walking frame and a supermarket bag, you know the kind I mean. They charge you 99 centre for them, but in reality they cost a dollar.
In the bag I would put the cassette tape with the loud telephone ring, and an old-fashioned telephone.
And when the train has a fairly long run, between two stations, I would activate the cassette tape, let it ring for a while and look around, as if it was nothing to do with me, then throw my hands in the air, and take out the old-fashioned telephone.
As I lifted the receiver I would surreptitiously switch off the cassette.
Then in a loud voice, I would say, “Hullo…yes, I am on the train…who did you say?”
I would look around at my fellow travellers, who I hoped were quite mystified at these shenanigans, then I would look for a man, about four seats away, but only if he was watching me, and then say into the receiver, “Hold on…”
And then say to the watching man – “It’s for you!”
by STELLA VOLTE
Comment by ANDREW SMITH, editor
THE federal government’s new ‘innovation’ fund to assist small news media has kicked off with a huge bias to Victoria and eastern states rural publishers while WA gets nothing.
This raises serious questions about the political management of the $60 million fund which sprang from the horse-trading between the then Turnbull government and then senator Nick Xenophon for support in watering down Australia’s restrictive cross media ownership laws in 2017.
Of 186 applicants across Australia vying for a slice of the $16 million first round not one from WA, including the Perth Voice and its stablemate the Fremantle Herald, was successful.
Massive shortfall
In addition, the federal communications minister, Victorian senator Mitch Fifield, oversaw the release of only $3.6 million with no explanation for the massive shortfall, no state by state breakdown of applicants nor the amount each successful bidder received from the behind-closed-doors selection process: Or why three publishers, Melbourne’s The Saturday Paper owned by a multi-millionaire property developer received three grants and two others two grants each.
But even more disturbing are the echoes back 25 years to the ‘Sports Rorts Affair’, when then federal Labor sports minister in the Keating government Ros Kelly lost her job for preferential funding of marginal Labor seats.
Biggest losers
With the 2019 innovation fund, the real winners from the signature of Victorian senator Fifield are Victoria with 14 successful applicants of 25 approved, many of them Victorian country publishers, and the 16 Coalition-held federal seats in and beyond Victoria where 64 per cent of the successful applicants operate.
And this decision by the senator was made in the aftermath of the Victorian state elections where the Liberal party had been smashed by voters, deepening worries about the fate of the party in the federal elections in May.
The rest of the successful applicants were from NSW with just five approvals, Queensland with three, South Australia two and Tasmania one.
West Australia and the Northern Territory were the biggest losers with none.
The Perth Voice and Fremantle Herald were notified on the Friday before Christmas of the rejection with a two-line email which stated “Your application satisfied the eligibility criteria for funding… and progressed to the merit assessment stage However your application… was not successful”. No reasons were given.
Internship programme
The independent, locally owned Voice and Herald had sought funding to train ‘citizen’ journalists for online publishing. This was to be an extension of its 29 year internship programme which has helped train scores of successful news journalists.
THE Chook’s been roosting for a couple of weeks, but let us bring you up to date on what’s happened in Voiceland during the festive break: THE Chook’s been roosting for a couple of weeks, but let us bring you up to date on what’s happened in Voiceland during the festive break:
A LEEDERVILLE man was arrested for suspicion of stealing flowers from Kings Park over the festive break.
On December 28 at 2.45am police spoke to a man on a bike, stopped at the side of Hasluck Street.
They were suspicious because the 55-year-old man had three large bags of native flowers that police suspected he may not have brought in with him.
He was charged with damaging, destroying or taking flora or fungi, living or dead, from designated land.
He will appear at the Perth magistrates court on January 30.
In September 2018 police charged a man with the theft of 32 pot plants after Wembley residents lodged repeated reports about a serial flower thief.
And in October 2018 police charged a man with the theft of “dozens” of native flowers from Kings Park, and some from nearby Wembley homes.
PERTH council commissioner Eric Lumsden got a little political when he told local governments to be apolitical about Australia Day.
In 2017 Fremantle council shifted their Australia Day celebrations two days later to the Saturday, out of respect for Aboriginal people who view January 26 as a day of mourning.
Freo council are doing the same this year and The Sunday Times quoted Mr Lumsden as saying councils should “remain apolitical” about the issue, confirming the Perth Skyworks would remain on January 26.
Mr Lumsden and two other state-appointed commissioners are in charge while the Perth councillors are suspended, and the commissioners recently got a term-extension.
An inquiry into possible improper or unlawful conduct at the city was scheduled to finish in May this year, but local government minister David Templeman has extended the deadline to January 2020.
An Invasion Day protest rally to change the date is also planned from noon to 3pm in Forrest Chase on Australia Day.
Bayswater council’s going ahead with their Australia Day barbecue at the Broun Avenue civic centre on January 26.
Vincent will hold its usual citizenship ceremony. It’s one of four they run each year.
PERTH council’s annual general meeting of electors will be held on January 15.
They are normally low-key affairs and one year only one resident attended, but Perth council has since expanded its boundaries to take in some firebrands from the western suburbs.
Even the date of the AGM has sparked disagreement: Anna Vanderbom from the “City of Perth Western Residents Inc” group shot off an email to the city saying “we were shocked again at the inappropriate timing and apparent disregard for residents/ratepayers who traditionally use the period around Christmas and throughout January as a time to spend with their families on holiday”.
Ms Vanderbom wrote “we urge you to change the date of the meeting to February, so that residents have the opportunity to be involved”.
But new council CEO Murray Jorgensen, appointed for nine months, said the date wouldn’t change.
He noted that they would’ve held the AGM in December, but there was a delay in getting their audit report signed-off, so “rightly or wrongly, I chose the January date as I believed it was better to hold it sooner rather than later”, and all the commissioners were available in January.
He said he’s happy to meet with the CPWR out with the AGM to chat about their interests.
Any motion passed by popular vote at an AGM has to be considered by the council.
Perth Voice Interactive 