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  • Square coming round

    Square coming round

    A TOWN square for North Perth is getting closer with Vincent council approving a tenderer this week.

    Engineering company BOS Civil saw off three other firms to win the building contract for “North Perth Common”, a public space planned for the corner of View and Fitzgerald Streets in the town centre.

    BOS Civil previously worked on the Victoria Park RSL memorial wall, and built those peculiar orange and grey bee-hive seats on William Street, just north of Yagan Square.

    • Emerge Associates’ concept design for North Perth town square.

    BOS will be working with Emerge Associates, who designed the circular-themed space with more trees, more places to sit and road treatments to slow down cars and make the square safer for pedestrians and cyclists.

    It’s part of a push to create new public spaces in town centres like the Mary Street Piazza in Highgate and Oxford Reserve in Leederville.

    The project has a budget of $750,000, with $250,000 of that being contributed by the state government.

    by DAVID BELL

  • Beau looking up

    Beau looking up

    THE new Beaufort Street Christmas Festival kicks off this Sunday (December 16), with the first Christmas Parade to follow next Saturday.

    The reinvigorated Beaufort Street Network has teamed up with St Alban’s Church and Vincent council to put on a week of Christmas events to get the Street back on people’s “to-do” list.

    The street’s had its ups and downs and for a while it was a victim of its own success, with punters flocking there for entertainment at night but neglecting retail during the day.

    BSN Chair Joshua O’Keefe says this year’s been promising for Beaufort.

    “Beaufort Street has opened four iconic new venues over the past few months, just in time for the busy holiday and summer season,” he says.

    “We are now home to the latest progressive dinner – [a food tour] between Sixty Grams, Meet and Bun and Measure – showing business collaboration is strong and getting stronger.

    “A new art gallery space – a collaboration between Mt Lawley Art Framers and Assembly Dept – is another example that Beaufort Street is not just a food-and-beverage destination.” Mr O’Keefe told the Voice.

  • No clangers here

    No clangers here

    A STUNNING trio of photos have won top honours at the annual Bell Tower photographic competition.

    In its eighth year, this year’s theme was “Sense of Place”.

    People’s choice winner Christian Mueller has been taking snaps for about seven years, but this was his first competition entry.

    • Christian Mueller’s winning entry in this year’s Bell Tower photographic competition, A Space for New and Old.

    His photo, A Space for New and Old, is a symmetrical black-and-white depiction of the bell tower with a building under- construction in the background

    Tracey Killen won the judges’ award for her image Puddles, taken as she shivered in the rain to get the perfect shot of the gleaming Bell Tower and its slick backdrop.

    • Puddles by Tracey Killen

    Beeliar photographer Taylor Yates, 15, won the youth category.

    He’s been taking photos since he was a young kid, borrowing his dad’s camera to experiment.

    He got his own first camera two years ago, and usually takes candid shots of people.

    • Within Perspective by Taylor Yates

    His image Within Perspective, taken at the foot of the tower, was the first photo he’d entered into a competition.

    The grown-ups won a $1200 camera package and the youth category gong comes with a $739 Powershot G9X Mark II camera.

  • Fest funds

    Fest funds

    FOUR cultural festivals in Stirling have received a $90,000 funding-boost from council.

    In February the state’s largest annual African festival, The Jambo Africa Festival, will bring the tastes, sounds and rhythms of Africa to the city.

    The event, now in its fifth year, will receive $20,000 from council and is expected to attract about 5000 people.

    Councillors allocated $20,000 to July’s Mirrabooka NAIDOC Event which focuses on ancient Aboriginal culture, history and art.

    A new addition to next year’s festival line-up is the Colours of Italy, which received $20,000 in funding and is expected to attract about 2000 people.

    The event will be held in March at the Stirling Civic Gardens and includes Italian food, entertainment and displays.

    The Rotary Carine Community Fair, to be held in March, received $30,000.

    by SEAN HILL

  • Garden buds

    Garden buds

    A COMMUNITY garden in Mt Lawley is a step closer after Stirling council chose Inglewood Bowling and Sports Club as its preferred site.

    The council will put the Stancliffe Street site out for comment in February before making a final decision next year.

    The city had also considered Walter Road Reserve, Inglewood Oval, and Faull, Brear and Gooch Parks.

    The bowling club met all the selection criteria, having a water connection, child-friendly fencing, on-site toilets and a central location.

    Gooch Park, on the corner of Central and Hamer Parades, was considered but the neighbouring tennis club wasn’t happy.

    Bowling club member Damien Lukich sits on the committee for the proposed community garden. He says the garden would be a win for the community and the club, which he predicts will experience increased activity and membership.

  • Bottler of an idea for WALGA

    Bottler of an idea for WALGA

    NEW legislation for a container deposit scheme has been introduced to WA Parliament. The scheme aims to get more people recycling bottles and cans by offering a 10 cent refund, but in this week’s SPEAKER’S CORNER, Bayswater councillor CHRIS CORNISH reckons the legislation is flawed.

    WHILE the container deposit scheme might make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, there are some issues with it – big issues. There is a solution which will reduce some of them – the WA Local Government Association.

    Whilst I think the scheme is a bit of a virtue-signalling con, the purported benefits include reducing litter and increasing recycling. However if you’re one of the idiots who’d throw an empty can out of your car window, I doubt the lure of 10 cents will change your warped mindset.

    Besides, most people use their kerbside collection quite happily and the container deposit scheme requires you to drive somewhere to do your recycling (if you want your money back).

    It’s a tax

    The cost of purchases are going to increase and not just by 10 cents a container. The infrastructure required to run the scheme will necessitate an increase of closer to 15 cents per container; maybe more.  So on a carton of beer expect to pay $3.60 more. A $40 carton becomes $43.60, which is a nine per cent increase. If however you buy a pack of water from a supermarket, the increase is far more significant: Woolworths’ 24x600ml packs will rise by 60 per cent from $6 to $9.60.

    It’s unjust and unfair

    The “battlers” (which is just about everyone) get hit far more than the affluent.

    The percentage price impact is not consistent: the lower the value of the purchase, the higher the percent increase. Buy an $80 carton of beer and the percentage increase drops by half from nine to 4.5 per cent.

    Government stuff things up – particularly when they’re in a hurry

    They don’t do it deliberately, it’s just how it normally works out. The extent of the stuff-up is sometimes hard to predict as the devil is always in the detail.

    NSW has a container deposit scheme and the government appointed the five biggest drink companies to set up and run the scheme. Due to only about 13 per cent of containers being brought back, the drink companies are pocketing 10 cents on the remaining 87 per cent of containers not being returned. This is estimated to be a staggering $34 million a month. That’s $34 million a month going from the pockets of consumers in NSW to major Australian and international companies.

    So who gets the money?

    This is where the state government has an opportunity to shine. Appoint WALGA to run the scheme.

    It has the ability to work with local governments and find suitable refund locations, and councils are already involved in waste and have resources and infrastructure to administer the scheme.

    WALGA will make a bucket load of money from this endeavour, which will then flow through to the local governments which are participating. This in turn will either reduce your local government rates or reduce the amount the state needs to subsidise local governments.

  • Tikka this off

    Tikka this off

    HUMPTY DUMPTY sat on a wall, where the poor old egg fell into a vat of curry at the Royal India Restaurant. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t pull him out again – so he became curried egg and was enjoyed by all.

    No eggs died for our lunch at the West Perth eatery, although a number of vegetables sacrificed themselves in the cause of a delicious tiffin for the D’Angers. Mushrooms were the first to fall on their sword so we could enjoy a superb tikka ($15). Cooked in a clay oven, the mushies were perched on the plate like small red apples, thanks to the tikka paste coating. Stuffed with paneer and a lime pickle, they were piquant and savoury.

    “The mushies have a cool dry-roasted flavour, with tangy cumin seeds on the outside and a kick on the inside,” D’Angerous Dave said.

    A request for the recipe was met with a smiling shake of the head from our pleasant waiter, but they were so yummy it was worth asking.

    The mushrooms were followed by an entree serve of fish amritsari ($16), aloo gobhi ($17.50), biryani ($16) and garlic naan ($6.50). Also cooked in a clay oven, the fish was dry on the outside, thanks to a coating of chickpea flour, and firm and moist on the inside. Innocent-looking slices of green chilli in the aloo added an extra zing to the potato and cauliflower.

    The biryani rice was a hummock of golden brown and yellow, and tasted as good as it looked, whether with the aloo, the fish or on its own. Freshly cooked, the naan had a pleasant garlic oiliness and was perfect to mop up the last of the sauce in the aloo.

    The Royal India is fine dining, without being intimidating, in a fresh modern setting with deep, comfy rattan chairs.

    by JENNY D’ANGER

    Royal India
    1134 Hay St, West Perth
    Mon–Fri lunch,
    7 nights dinner
    licenced 

  • He’s not half funny

    He’s not half funny

    COMEDIAN Craig Quartermaine weaves Aboriginal politics into jokes that will make you laugh and squirm.

    The Perth Nyoongar used to drive trucks for the mining industry and had a spell as an apprentice chef, but he left that all behind after winning a broadcasting scholarship with ABC Radio.

    Urbane, with a sharp and wicked wit, Quartermaine soon became the WA correspondent for the National Indigenous Television Network.

    He contributed to Australia’s first Aboriginal sketch show, the hugely popular Black Comedy, and has appeared on Tonightly with Tom Ballard.

    Quartermaine’s 2018 send-up of Aboriginal male stereotypes on Triple J went viral with more than one million hits in 48 hours.

    Seven years as an ABC journalist threatened Quartermaine’s sense of humour, so he switched from journalism to stand-up comedy.

    • Craig Quartermain weaves jokes to make you squirm.

    “It’s the editing process: You have covered a story you put your heart into it and someone four thousand km away in ABC headquarters changes it.

    “The appeal of stand up is it’s all on me.”

    He’s performed at the Edinburgh Fringe and introduced UK audiences to the Australian race dynamic with the opening line, “black and white relations in Australia is like the way the English treat the Polish. But they’re doing it in Poland.”

    On December 19 you can enjoy Quartermaine’s razor-sharp humour at The Laugh Resort, Perth’s longest running comedy club and Australia’s only incorporated association run by the comedy industry.

    “We’ve been the launching pad for comedians including Dave Callan, Rove, Claire Hooper, Jim Jefferies and Hughesy,” president Alex Manfrin says.

    And Voice cartoonist Jason Chatfield honed his skills there, before moving to the US and performing stand-up in New York.

    For details go to thelaughresort.com.au 

    by JENNY D’ANGER

  • The Importance of Trees

    The Importance of Trees

    “Australian trees have adapted over millions of years to the climate, soil and recurrent bushfires in order to survive and regenerate, giving them their unique characteristics and diversity. These natural cycles have enabled Aboriginal people to survive in all regions of Australia for thousands of years, in environments that would seem inhospitable to the outsider,” says acclaimed WA photographer Richard Woldendorp, on his new book ‘The Tree’.

    “In the past I have photographed Australian landscapes, but in this book, I wanted to highlight the importance of trees. They have sustained human existence for millennia, providing not only oxygen but also shelter, food and raw materials. And yet, we are losing billions of trees every year to deforestation at unsustainable rates. Conservation is needed not only for their protection – trees are necessary for our own survival,” adds Mr Woldendorp.

    Multi-award winning Richard Woldendorp is renowned for his evocative photography of the Australian landscape. He has been awarded Australian Photographer of the Year, is a WA State Living Treasure and was given the Order of Australia for his contribution to the arts. His new book – The Tree is available to purchase from all local bookstores, or via Fremantle Press: http://www.fremantlepress.com.au

  • A Weekend of Magical Music

    A Weekend of Magical Music

    Nannup Music Festival 1st – 4th March 2019

    Nannup Music Festival is an annual event that brings community together to enjoy music, art and nature. People come from near and far to immerse in a weekend of discovery in the beautiful south west. Next year marks the festival’s 30th birthday, and to celebrate, the 2019 line up will see some of the old favourites return, such as Bernard Carney and Ballpoint Penguins from the early days, plus Eric Bogle, Neil Murray and Loren Kate.

    There are more recent favourites returning too, like The Southern River Band, Bec Sandridge and Mathas. Or you may just discover your new favourite artist. There’s so much musical diversity on offer and that’s one of the wonderful things about the festival – there’s something for everyone.

    Held on every Labor Day long weekend, Nannup Music Festival is created by the community for the community. It’s a weekend to come as you are, alone or with loved ones, young or old, and have fun. See great music, meander along the river, eat yummy food, take part in a workshop, wander the festival stalls and the shops in town, play in the park, camp in the bush, swim in a water hole, busk on the streets – whatever you love about a weekend away, you’re sure to find it at the Nannup Music festival. For more info visit http://www.nannupmusicfestival.org

    Tickets: https://www.trybooking.com/YPYZ